We get to meet a lot of excellent folks as part of agency life and as much as we welcome new connections, we value loyalty and the deeper relationships that come from collaboration over the years. Putting a number on this matters not, but suffice to say our founder, Melissa Fretwell has had the pleasure of working with the Ideas Foundation’s CEO Heather MacRae in a number of different ways. Right here, right now she is enjoying the chance to chat and catch up with all the Ideas Foundation (IF) action from the last year with the simple aim to share some brilliant ideas and inspire anyone reading this to get young people front and centre of the idea generation process.
First up though, Heather, running a small yet mighty charity is pretty demanding, why do you do what you do?
I have worked in education for nearly 40 years - always in the field of supporting young people in their careers. I arrived in this country as an immigrant aged 13 and had no understanding of careers and education pathways. So I love giving young people, especially from less advantaged communities, the chance to discover their own creative talents and discover careers that weren’t on their radar.
Our initial focus was on nurturing creativity and driving diversity in the advertising industry. Over time we broadened our work to develop projects that enable young people to discover, develop and share their creative talents in communication briefs that align with climate change, mental wellbeing, health inequalities and racial discrimination. We are committed to making the creative industries open to everyone. As a result, we have helped open the doors to a world of creativity for thousands of young people across the UK who, by virtue of their background, would traditionally have been locked out.
Seeing the pride on students’ faces as they present their creative ideas to a panel of industry professionals is one of the real joys of The Ideas Foundation. We read through, with delight, the emails from teachers describing the positive impact our workshops have had on their classes. We hear from tutors how students have told them they feel seen and inspired through their IF experiences. And then we read about past students gaining promotions and new jobs in the sector or passing their skills onto the next generation. It is these moments that inspire me to keep on keeping on.
What are the biggest challenges facing young people right now?
Well, the stats are sobering, nearly 900,000 young people (16 to 24 years old) are currently not in work or education, with many having special educational needs, low-level skills, and mental health conditions*. In the classroom, entries for creative subjects have decreased by 35% since 2010**. Outside of the classroom, enrichment opportunities for less advantaged groups are 20% less than those for more advantaged groups***.
Then looking at their career options there’s the lack of network, understanding the jobs available and then knowing which companies could be their future employers. We’re here to help address these gaps, inspire young people to discover their creative potential, make vital introductions and expand access to creative learning.
Sources: *Get Britain Working 2024.** Schools Week. ***Centre for Social Justice.
Rewind to 2024, tell us about three Ideas Foundation programmes which grabbed attention?
So tough to choose. We led the way with our Power of Hair programme, generously supported by Pantene, the BBC Creative Media Camps, our continuing work with the Manchester College Employability programmes, and our photographic projects aligned with wellbeing supported by Canon. These successes, alongside our past projects for the Coronation and the Platinum Pageant mean we’ve had genuine impact across the length and breadth of the UK.
That is more than three Heather. Do tell us more about the Power of Hair, The BBC Creative Media Camps and Creating Connections.
ADDRESSING HAIR DISCRIMINATION
Pantene came to us with a challenge: to develop a programme of creative activities to raise awareness of Afro-hair discrimination while increasing confidence in young people.
2023/2024 was the third year of a three-year educational campaign, Power of Hair, created by the Ideas Foundation in partnership with Pantene. It was born out of the insights that 93% of Black people in the UK have faced micro-aggressions related to their Afro hair and that school is the most common place where discrimination occurs. In this project, young people work alongside industry professionals and leading poets, photographers, game designers, artists, and other creatives to explore this emotive and topical issue through workshops designed to get them thinking and help develop their creative skills. Following rigorous testing and development with over 1,400 students, the workshop material is now available as free downloadable lesson plans for Key Stage Two and Three students across STEM, English, Art, Drama, and Business Studies.
Over 9,000 students in more than 100 schools across the UK have now taken part. The feedback from schools and young people is extremely positive, with many teachers asking for repeat visits. Teachers have said that Power of Hair has allowed them to consider aspects of discrimination in a sensitive, positive, and creative way.
CONNECTING EMPLOYERS WITH FUTURE AUDIENCES AND EMPLOYEES
The creative industry in Manchester is growing and local employers like the BBC are keen to develop relationships with future talent. The BBC Creative Media camp is a five-day intensive programme of workshops and visits that allows students to present their ideas to BBC staff. Students had an opportunity to visit The Picture Shop and meet apprentices and senior staff from the BBC Manchester studio. Students and staff were inspired by the programme and were invited to visit the BBC to share their work. As a result, student Leona Gasper was offered a position with the BBC and a further programme of media camps was offered in the autumn of 2024. The BBC has contributed case stories of the programme’s impact to the Manchester Next Gen conference.
CREATING CONNECTIONS
Eskdale School students worked with photographers Michael Cockerham and Tom Martin on personal narratives about life in Whitby. They focused on the challenges of being a teenager, their sadness at their school closing, and the beauty and bleakness of the moors and how this makes them feel isolated. The work was displayed at the Pannett Gallery in Whitby and inspired further photographic projects with Old Farm School in Saltburn, a school specialising in supporting young people with complex emotional needs. The student work was featured in a five-page spread in the RSA Journal.
Editorial credit: Photos from “Belonging”, an exhibition hosted at the Pannett Art Gallery in Whitby in May 2024. Student groups from Eskdale School and Old Farm School worked together during the 2023–24 school year as photographers, art directors and models, and on creative writing. Check out a few of the many epics shots in the gallery:
How can brands get involved?
We are always looking for new forward-thinking, purposeful brands to collaborate with. Through engaging workshops and programmes led by industry professionals, students explore new creative outlets in media, art, design, writing, theatre, film and photography. With expert guidance and access to cutting-edge resources, they are equipped to gain the skills and confidence to thrive.
It’s such a fascinating way to work where everyone comes away with something valuable. From a brand’s perspective it may be new ideas, new insights to help inform their campaign messaging or product or service roadmaps. Students and teachers alike are genuinely engaged with an authentic “real world” challenge which becomes a memorable moment in the academic year and sometimes changes a young person's career direction completely.
And finally your ambitions for 2025
We’re aiming to give 3,000 young people in communities that are typically less advantaged, a chance to discover their creativity, improve life skills, and develop aspirations through high-quality workshops in partnership with leading creatives, brands and social causes.
We contribute to the national missions of creating opportunity for young people, contributing to a modern curriculum so young people are ready for work and life, and supporting regional economic growth.
We’re piloting a major new programme in four rural and urban areas, bringing creativity and life skills together with climate literacy, working with Barclays. More on 'Climate Stories' to come.
And, we’re champions of combining the power of art and science. We partnered with Queen Mary University of London to empower Presdales School, Ware, Hertfordshire Y7 students to tackle hidden pollution through designing arresting creative campaigns. This initiative brought together students to collaborate with renowned photographers Eliska Sky and Michael Cockerham. The challenge was to make an invisible issue visible. As Dr Tina Chowdhury (Reader in Regenerative Medicine at Queen Mary University of London Centre for Bioengineering) so brilliantly explains:
“We now have enough evidence that exposure to air pollution has serious health effects on vulnerable populations and can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as lung cancer, obesity, type II diabetes, and mental health conditions. Exposure to vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, children, and young people accelerate chronic conditions, leading to premature inflammatory diseases. People who live in the most deprived areas of the city are affected by poor air quality both outdoors and in the home. We need to educate our young people, reduce pollution in our environment by half, and drive a change that reduces healthcare costs and benefits the economy.”
The workshop coincided with the International Day of Women and Children in Science and was supported by funding from the Creative Floor Awards. We’re always looking for businesses and brands who are keen to help realise these kinds of fundamental projects. More stunning work below:
Big thanks to Heather for sharing this gold. We are of course massively biased, but think that any brand in the business of making the world a better place now and for the next generations, needs to get in touch. Drop her a line here: heather@ideasfoundation.org.uk
Anyone who wants to strengthen their brand through purpose, come chat to Melissa: melissa.fretwell@whitecamino.com.
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