King’s Church Uckfield is launching an exciting new venture to help local young people. The King’s Media Hub is inviting students aged 16+ who are studying creative media courses at college or university the opportunity to use professional equipment and software that they wouldn’t usually be able to access outside school.
The drop-in space at The King’s Centre on the Bellbrook Industrial Estate is now open on Mondays from 3.15 – 6.30pm for those wanting to spend extra time on their work or personal projects in a friendly, relaxing space, enabling them to learn how to use the software better, swap ideas or just pop on the headphones and get their heads down and make progress on a project in a distraction free environment. Internet access (with full protection for under 18’s) is of course available and printer access if needed.
Uckfield College are enthusiastically supporting this venture to help their students, whether they are studying Digital Media, Film Studies, Media Studies or Music Technology and with funding and purchase of two apple mac computers already provided by a local business to start the venture off, they are now looking to grow the capacity for more students to be able to access this great resource.
So, if you know anyone who may be interested in using the space, please share the information with them or if your business would like to support this local venture by providing funding to enable the purchase of additional computers, please get in touch!
Why is this needed?
• It is well documented that creativity brings many benefits to young people, including supporting them in areas of wellbeing and their mental health.
• Although Uckfield College students have their Chromebooks for college work, these do not have the computing power or the software required for creative subjects, meaning the time they have is limited to lessons and occasional lunchtimes.
• Digital poverty is an issue for many students looking to start out in creative media subjects. With an initial outlay for professional equipment and high ongoing software subscriptions, many families can’t afford to provide what is needed to support their young people at home.
• For students looking to progress careers in the areas of digital creativity, there is very little support currently available to help them to develop these skills.
For further information you can visit the church website at www.kingschurchuckfield.org.uk