New promo materials for UNITY

We've been slaving away to update our promo materials so here's sneak peek of our new leaflets that will be hitting the streets in 2010.....

We'll be recruiting lots of peer eductaors for exciting projects in the new year so watch this space for details of opportunities comming up in the next few months.

BBC Face 2 Face Scheme

On Monday 23rd November 2009 six UNITY volunteers went to BBC Bristol to participate in a three-day training event called Face 2 Face. The scheme is about providing training and support to young people from diverse backgrounds who aspire to a career in the media. During the initial 3 day event our volunteers worked with other young people to produce a 5-minute film supported by BBC staff exploring their response to the question, is the BBC for me? The aim of this was to engage them in a dialogue about their views of the BBC as a media producer and potential employer.


The key questions they looked at were:
Does the BBC's output interest, engage and entertain them?
Does it represent them, their views and experiences?
Would they consider the BBC as a place to work, would they fit in and feel at home here?

The volunteers...
We spoke to all of our young people during the application process and they told us what they were hoping to get out of the experience:

'With this opportunity I would love to be able to enhance my practical skills and get out there and get as much experience as I can. I feel it could help me keep enthusiastic about expressing myself and help my life broaden out in a bigger way. The opportunity to be able to focus on working on representing the views that so many people have about race, religion and class is very important to me as well. I also feel that the media today needs to change how they choose to stereotype. If the BBC gets more people from different backgrounds then it could help make a better product and achieve a better outcome really.' - Correll, 20

'My interests have always been in the field of imagination. I've always been a creative person and I enjoy seeing ideas come to life. This is going to give me a very big opportunity because obviously the BBC are very prestigious, they're known worldwide, and to be able to say you work for the BBC or have the chance to work with the BBC is a reward in itself.' - Oneil, 22

'Working with the BBC would be a huge honour because the BBC is a very big company known worldwide and I'm quite proud to know that the BBC is in Bristol. What would I get from the scheme? Obviously I would get to work in the actual industry and get that experience that I'm craving having just graduated from university. I'd like to develop my camera skills more and see the professional production side of things. My ultimate goal within the media is to direct and produce my own films or TV programmes.' - Romayne, 24

'I want to work in the film and media industry but getting your foot in the door is one of the hardest things to do. If I get this opportunity it would mean the world to me.' - Narasser, 22 

What the BBC Thought....
'They came with energy and enthusiasm and left exhausted - a true experience of working at the BBC. Even though the team from Bread were split up into different groups they showed a strong ability to convey their ideas and listen to the input of others. The mentors that worked with them really enjoyed helping them plan, film and edit and found them all very engaging.' Michelle, BBC Bristol.

You can find out what our volunteers thought on our quotes page here. 


Next Steps....
After the initial three days, those that want to take it further have been offered on-going training in the form of workshops to develop key skills and sessions with a BBC mentor who can provide access to supporting information on career development. Young people will gain experience in many different areas such as script writing, presenting, editing, camera-work, radio production, CV and application writing and interview techniques.

At the end of this 12-week programme, those looking for work can compete for one of three paid work placements. These placements will be awarded to three successful candidates and will see each employee rotated between post-production, factual programming and news. Young people will be encouraged to network as much as possible and make us of the contacts they gain during the placement.'We hope it will provide a platform from which to launch themselves into a media career.' Sarah Wade, Project Manager BBC Bristol.

Our thanks go to all the staff at BBC Bristol who are supporting UNITY's volunteers over the next few months. We hope all our young people get as much as possible from the experience and look forward to watching their progress.

You can check out all the photos from the event here.