00:00:00:00 - 00:00:03:22 Speaker 1 You're listening. To listening to echo radio. Echo wood. 00:00:03:22 - 00:00:19:08 Speaker 2 Radio. Once again, you're listening to the Ripple Effect here on Echo Wood Radio, where we talk about those all important stories that champion change. Now I'm joined by Kellyanne from Kickstarts. Dan's. Hello, Kellyanne. Hello. Hello. And how did you first hear about United by 22? 00:00:19:09 - 00:00:36:01 Speaker 1 So my first involvement with United by was through their Gen 22 program. So I was working with another organization who'd been funded through their Gen 22 program, and we were helping they were delivering that program to us. We were helping get that out to more young people. So that was my first introduction. 00:00:36:02 - 00:00:37:18 Speaker 2 Wonderful. And what was that project all about? 00:00:37:23 - 00:00:57:12 Speaker 1 That project was bringing different groups of people together, trying to create a more cohesive community, and we were on it as part of the social action. So we created a community event for people in Winnsboro in summer. And, yeah, that was our involvement with their project, trying to bring community together. 00:00:57:15 - 00:01:07:22 Speaker 2 Wonderful. Now you've got a bit more to your story as like Jaden, who we've just heard from today, you also progressed through the Ideas Made Real initiative. Tell us more about your experience with that. 00:01:07:24 - 00:01:34:04 Speaker 1 Yeah. So following from our involvement, involvement with Gen 22, we were then encouraged to in to apply for ideas made real. That was due to a program that I'd wanted to run for a really long time and had had a lot of pushback of that to be funded. We just had been really unsuccessful. And just through our pathway of Gen 22, we felt that ideas made real was the right way to go in the right pathway. 00:01:34:04 - 00:01:42:05 Speaker 1 So we applied for ideas made real to run a mental health youth club. And yeah, we were successful. We got shortlisted to come to the Power Plan weekend. 00:01:42:06 - 00:01:43:02 Speaker 2 That sounds exciting. 00:01:43:02 - 00:02:00:00 Speaker 1 Pitched our idea, learned all about how to run a project, how to apply for a project. Met loads of other young people very similar to me who'd got a really cool idea and wanted to run with it and do something good in the community. And that's that's why we leapt straight into ideas, Made Real a. 00:02:00:00 - 00:02:03:03 Speaker 2 Really fantastic story. And who is attending this mental health youth club? 00:02:03:06 - 00:02:26:20 Speaker 1 So our demographic was young girls, really high school age, but we didn't turn anyone away. It was more just anyone who felt that they needed that support, whether it was just a conversation to be had or whether it was that further, intervention for their mental health. Just. Yeah, anyone who needed that. But predominantly young girls, predominantly high school age. 00:02:26:20 - 00:02:40:04 Speaker 2 So a very similar age range to Jaden the sporting year project. And with Jaden, he was targeting areas where there wasn't a lot of opportunity or facilities for young people to do his offered activity. Is this the same for you in Kickstarts Dance where you're based? 00:02:40:06 - 00:03:01:05 Speaker 1 Yeah. So originally we started out and we got them on board through our dance program. And it was just because there wasn't that much there. But then when we delve deeper into why they were coming in and what they wanted from us, we kind of found that the provision for mental health or more so a trusted professional with a mental health just wasn't just wasn't in our community. 00:03:01:05 - 00:03:05:03 Speaker 1 And so we kind of were bridging that gap with that project. Yeah. 00:03:05:05 - 00:03:08:18 Speaker 2 And when we talk about Kickstarts dance, what kind of dance are we talking about? 00:03:08:22 - 00:03:19:09 Speaker 1 Also, we're a straight dance group. We're not we're not very elegant. We're very energetic. We're very out there. So we're doing street dance and we do cheerleading as well. 00:03:19:11 - 00:03:24:13 Speaker 2 And are these totally community based or do you enter competitions for cheerleading? How does that work? 00:03:24:14 - 00:03:41:16 Speaker 1 Yeah. So as much as we are out in the community and doing community performances, we are competing roughly 5 to 6 times a year that say are locally, nationally. Yeah. So there is a very much a competition element to what we're doing as well as just coming in and having fun. 00:03:41:22 - 00:03:49:19 Speaker 2 Amazing. And just coming back to your mental health youth club project. Were these the same young people coming back every week, or did you experience different people at each session? 00:03:49:20 - 00:04:11:10 Speaker 1 Normal. Yes, we do get quite a lot of intake and we do get some switches weekly, but if they're in it, they're in it for the long haul. It's very much less of a dance class and more of like a little family, very dysfunctional family, but more like a little family where, you know, if someone's not there, the girls are immediately on their phone texting them, are you okay? 00:04:11:10 - 00:04:20:21 Speaker 1 What's going on? Are you come in to dance? So it is. It is everyone every week turning up. But we do get some new ones thrown in quite regularly as well. 00:04:20:21 - 00:04:30:08 Speaker 2 Yeah. So with other sports, if you don't have enough of a certain position turn up, then it's really hard to then continue with that sport. Is that the same with dance and with cheerleading? 00:04:30:08 - 00:04:54:03 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah for sure. So everyone's got their own place and everyone's vital to our session. I mean, for example, we did a competition last year where our flier. So this is in cheerleading, which is the person you lift in the air, couldn't come to the competition. So we had to compete without the person we were throwing in the air, which was definitely provided an interesting performance pretending to do that. 00:04:54:03 - 00:05:01:00 Speaker 1 But yeah, everyone's vital to to the team. Everyone's got their place. It's really important for everyone to be there. Yeah. 00:05:01:02 - 00:05:10:01 Speaker 2 And do you have any standout stories that you've got? Anyone in particular you can think of that has really benefited from this, or have gone on to do something extra with it? Anything at all? 00:05:10:01 - 00:05:33:01 Speaker 1 Yeah, there's definitely there's definitely oh there's loads, there's loads. We've got a girl at the moment who's transitioned into a coach for us, and she was someone who really struggled at school, wasn't sure what way she was going to go, whether it was the academic route, whether it was a bit more creative. And she's just thrived as a coach and become a really professional role model for our kids. 00:05:33:03 - 00:05:57:06 Speaker 1 And it it really like fills me with pride to see that because I'm not sure what her path would have been, but now she's on this positive path. She's got, you know, people that look up to her, but equally, she's got people she looks up to and she's gone through her training courses and it's just something that wouldn't have happened, I don't think, had she of been involved in a group, which is really nice, and we have loads of stories like that really. 00:05:57:06 - 00:06:00:16 Speaker 1 Yeah. So it's a really positive impact that we put back out. 00:06:00:20 - 00:06:10:23 Speaker 2 A wonderful story of progression there amongst many others, it seems. So that was Kickstarts Dance, but your story doesn't end there now. So how else have you been involved with United by 22 since then? 00:06:11:00 - 00:06:30:24 Speaker 1 So United by Crew created the opportunity for us to do our ideas made real program, which was our mental health club. So initially the kids would come to dance. They were telling us that, yeah, they're enjoying coming to dance, but there's just something missing. And this came off the back of the pandemic that they just didn't have these people to talk to. 00:06:31:00 - 00:06:56:12 Speaker 1 You know, our priorities changed of what we wanted and how we were feeling so united by provided us with that funding. They gave a 6,000 pounds to run a youth club for a year, which was amazing. And it was perfect timing because it was something we'd wanted to do. But a lot of people had said we just weren't in the position to do that, or the funders had declined us that we're not a mental health based organization, so we weren't the right provider for that. 00:06:56:14 - 00:07:20:17 Speaker 1 Where United by took a chance on us and they said, maybe you are the right person to do that. You know, so they they took that chance on us. We did the project. It was really, really successful project. It's led us to more funding. It's led us to other providers taking that chance on us, but they've also been able to give us the opportunity to be involved in other events throughout the city. 00:07:20:17 - 00:07:47:10 Speaker 1 So at the very start of that funding program, they provided our young people tickets to sporting events in the city, which is something that I'd never done before. Maybe had never even been to Birmingham before. So that was really cool for them to have that experience. They gave me a really good intro to the world of funding and to the world of funders, and how I could also see the opposite side to that. 00:07:47:10 - 00:08:05:07 Speaker 1 So they put me forward to be on a funding panel. Which was really cool to be able to see the opposite side of that and to see other projects that are in the community and to help inspire me, but also upskill me so that when I come to apply for further funding, that I've got those skills as well. 00:08:05:09 - 00:08:25:17 Speaker 1 So that was really cool. And then off the back of that, we did apply for a fund that they supported us with the application. They gave us lots of information and they gave us lots of help around how best we can translate our project to, a written application. And then we managed to successfully be granted 44,000 pounds. 00:08:25:17 - 00:08:42:06 Speaker 1 Amazing to do a big, a bigger scope of our mental health project, which yeah, it was insane. And I've been a massive support throughout that project as well. Checking in my control were okay. Any support that I can give a they were on hand to do so. Yeah, that was really, really positive from there. 00:08:42:06 - 00:08:57:17 Speaker 2 What's so great about your story, Kellyanne, is the fact that you started by being part of another company who were involved with unite by 22 to growing kickstart stands with a crucial mental health youth club throughout the same means. Yeah. And then furthering your own understanding around funding and applications all under one big initiative. 00:08:57:18 - 00:09:30:03 Speaker 1 Yeah, I it seemed like maybe I guess on the surface a small this is 6,000 pound, but it wasn't 6,000 pounds to our ideas made real project, it was 6,000 pound that catapult did us to network in, to connections, to upskill in, to providing opportunities for me to broaden opportunities for the girls to. Yeah, it just snowballed into this huge opportunity that we never expected to get and has been just so, so positive and impactful on our organization, on me and on our participants as well. 00:09:30:07 - 00:09:47:12 Speaker 2 It really is a wonderful story. Thank you so much for coming in, Kellyanne. Thank you. And we certainly look forward to hearing about her in the near future. And for our final story today on the Ripple Effect, we are sticking with the same theme of dance, but with another dance company in a completely different corner of the region who have a whole story of their own. 00:09:47:17 - 00:09:54:15 Speaker 2 Stay tuned to find out more.