Changemakers Brochure Web

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www.blastbeat.org

ChangemakersBe the change you want to see

in the world of education

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What is Blastbeat?

Blastbeat is a fun, music & business programme for teenagers. The

programme features 2 competitions in 1 – a business competition for

young social entrepreneurs, and a music competition for young, original

musicians. Blastbeat is a registered UK Charity.

• Students form their own Event Social Enterprise (ESE) and organise

a concert.

• Local, young musicians receive a chance to perform in a safe,

alcohol & drug-free environment.

• 25% of the profit made is donated to local charities or causes of

their choice.

• The best ESE wins £2000 seed capital, & £1000 for their school.

This encourages development of business skills, social responsibility &

musical talent.

What’s the appeal?

Blastbeat’s innovative and exciting format appeals to all stakeholders:

• Blastbeat very effectively captures the attention of the student

demographic, traditionally very difficult to engage… whilst teachers,

parents, and all stakeholders appreciate its proven excellent

learning experience.

• Blastbeat is a life changing experience, but also fun, cool & very

relevant to students - they learn a variety of life & work skills while

growing in self-confidence.

•The programme leverages teens’ key lifestyle interests of music &

event promotion.

• Has proven exceptional at engaging with otherwise disaffected

teenagers in the learning process, helping to address the issue of

teenage dropout in a concrete, sustainable way.

Education

Social Entrepeneurship Music

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Positive results and feedback

The Head Teacher…

“Blastbeat has helped our students come within the top 5% in the

country. I strongly recommend Blastbeat - it serves a very important

part of the work related curriculum.”

Sue John, Head Teacher, Lampton School, Hounslow

The Student…

“It has been my main reason for getting up at 7am every day to be at

school on time… Blastbeat is the best thing that has ever happened

to the school and I wholeheartedly hope that it carries on the good

work of teaching kids how to make a step up in life.”

Dan Goss, CEO of Hi-Fi ESE, Leytonstone School

The Success Story

“Blastbeat has much more credibility among students as being

a ticket to their own future. It is leadership training through the

universal language and enterprise of music. Blastbeat gave me a

start in the music industry and I now have a real and blossoming

career at the age of 22.”

Blastbeat alumnus Charlie Arme

Senior A&R Manager, B-Unique Records (Kaiser Chiefs, etc.)

“If organisations want to speak to, and connect with the youth

generation these days, they need to finds way of incorporating

music into their development projects”

Carl J. Schramm, CEO, Kauffman Foundation

“The fact is that in the twenty first century, jobs and competitiveness

depend absolutely on the very qualities like creativity and

independent thinking that school systems are being forced to tramp

down... Yet businesses everywhere are saying they need people

who are creative and can think independently.”

Sir Ken Robinson - 2009

Blastbeat’s reach

Since its launch in 2003, Blastbeat’s reach has extended significantly and

is set to expand further. Robert Stephenson, music industry veteran &

award winning social entrepreneur, founded Blastbeat in 2003.

• Produced the UK gig leading to U2’s record deal, March 1980.

• Gave many young and successful artists and bands their start.

To date, Blastbeat has engaged over 10,000 students in Ireland, the UK,

South Africa, the United States, Slovakia, Belgium and Japan. Blastbeat

reached 250 Greater London schools and colleges in 2010, aiming to

increase to 1,200 by July 2012.

Last year’s finals were held at the O2 Arena, July 2010:

• Over 12,000 students participated.

• Guest performances by The Saturdays, Tinchy Stryder, The Wanted,

Elisa Doolittle, Twenty Twenty, and 8 Blastbeat winning acts.

• Plans are in place for a Blastbeat Rocks TV / IPTV series to be

broadcast nationally in 2011/12.

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Volunteering and costs

The volunteering requirement is only for 2 hours a month, for 3 months,

with travel times to the school – plus some optional after-hours

attendance at a gig or two.

The cost of Changemakers is £7k per school, per year, before a charitable

tax deduction. One company can elect to mentor and sponsor as

many schools as they like to run Blastbeat, or share costs with other

businesses in the community as part of our Co-operative Sponsorship

model.

Corporate mentoring

In order to achieve our mission, we are seeking to build links with

corporate mentors

Blastbeat is The BIG SOCIETY In ACTION. Our mission is to:

• Develop new and exciting education programmes for young people,

helping them to learn necessary life, social & business skills in ways

that are fun & relevant to their interests.

• Form a sustainable social entrepreneur youth movement &

community of young Changemakers united for common good in a

fun, cool way.

• Empower youth communities to tackle social, educational and

environmental issues.

• Make a real improvement in students’ learning abilities, school

attendance, application & results.

The next step:

Link students with corporate mentors & companies to help them in

their journey to become creative social entrepreneurs and/or exemplary

employees.

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Participation and sponsorship

Blastbeat Changemakers will comprise of participation and sponsorship:

Mentoring

Companies can select a partner school of their choice, or Blastbeat will

match them up.

• We will provide free training for those who wish to take part, as well

as a Blastbeat mentor throughout the programme.

• Employees visit the school for 1 hour a fortnight and engage in

mentoring sessions over 3 months.

Sponsorship

• Participating companies each donate £7,000 for one year, either

individually or as a co-operative.

• This sum covers the cost of running the programme in one school

and helps to fund the music competition.

Event - the Concert

• Employees can organise a fundraising inter-company battle of the

bands (optional).

• Money raised can go towards the sponsorship fee…

• … or they can use the money to fund additional engagement with

their partner school.

• All mentors can also attend the students’ UK final at the end of

the year.

Benefits for Participating Companies

Involvement in Changemakers will be hugely beneficial for4 key reasons…

1. Employee engagement

• Mentoring Schemes boost corporate morale.

• According to the team-based employee volunteering survey

published in Business in the Community (BITC) last year, 97% of

staff feel it is important that their employer supports volunteering

during working hours.

“You can see children changing in front of your eyes, you can see them

doing something that they enjoy, and you can see our consultants

as they work with the children doing something that they enjoy.”

- Richard Verity, Partner & VP, Booz & Co, Oct 2010.

2. New skills

Mentoring students is an ideal way for employees to develop skills

relevant to their workplace, including team building, inspiring and

leading, motivating, empowering and communicating.

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Benefits (cont’d)

3. Fostering the next generation of workers

• Active, results-orientated involvement in preparing young people for

the workplace.

• Bringing CSR to life in an innovative, exciting way.

• Building bridges between schools and the corporate world.

• Deep integration into the local community.

4. Brand building and public image

• Involvement in a scheme like Blastbeat will be a differentiating,

valuable HR resource when recruiting, e.g. graduates.

• Enhanced PR, marketing and client relationship opportunities

through participation.

• Blastbeat provides good media coverage and brand awareness on

TV, radio, press, and all social media.

Are you interested?

Blastbeat now seeks host companies for Blastbeat Changemakers.

• With your help, Blastbeat aims to help local businesses become

involved with schools, colleges and youth groups in your community.

• We will seek to engage with host companies through a series of

Blastbeat presentations and discussions.

•Together, we can redefine the way young people learn about

business and enterprise.

•There is great ROI for businesseses from excellent HR, PR, & CSR

opportunities.

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Having first heard about Blastbeat at a presentation in the House, I am

wholeheartedly supporting this initiative, initially by introducing

Blastbeat to the commercial and academic communities in my

constituency, which I trust will draw attention to the value to this

excellent programme and initiative and encourage uptake.

Mr. Nick Hurd MP,

Minister of State for Civil Society,

Feb 2011

Engaging with a school through Blastbeat is tremendously entertaining,

you can see children changing in front of your eyes... it really matters to

the quality of our own working existence that we have engagements like

Blastbeat... we are a much more cohesive office as a result of working

with Highbury Grove School and Blastbeat.

Mr Richard Verity

Vice President & Partner

Booz & Company

London

Testimonials

I confirm that the programme that Blastbeat offer is extremely high-

quality. The programme is also educationally robust, and a great deal of

thought has been put into how a number of aspects of the curriculum

are being delivered in schools through the programme. This makes

it attractive to teachers too, as they can easily plug Blastbeat into a

number of areas of the curriculum. The primary version of the programme,

Blastbeat Prime, whilst relatively new, also looks very exciting; it had

clearly made a significant impact on pupils’ attitude to school and they

were clearly extremely impressed.

I have found Robert and his team great to work with. Their passion for

Blastbeat is infectious and their flexible, ‘can do’ attitude means that

Blastbeat is excellent for re-engaging young people who may be at risk

of dropping out of education. Robert and his team have worked in some

very deprived wards across London, and because Blastbeat reaches out

to young people and engages them on their own terms about things that

interest them, it channels their enthusiasm

in ways that other areas of the curriculum are less able to do. The

testimony from the students that have been on the programme is really

quite moving – in some cases, it really does seem to have been a life-

changing event.

Dr Jim Magee – Dept for Education

Education Strategy and Improvement Group

2nd Floor, Sanctuary Buildings

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Contact

Robert Stephenson

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +44 (0) 786 312 2230

Dan Morgan

Email: [email protected]: +44 (0) 790 534 9313

Blastbeat is a registered charity Charity number: 1136121