This project is part-funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund
CREATIVE MEDIA WORKSHOPS
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CREATIVE MEDIA WORKSHOPS 〰️
For Young People (10-25)
All our youth creative media activities are now under Youth Creative Media Devon (YCM Devon)!
For Organisations
Commission tailored workshops for your team, community or young people
Contact us to find out more about commissioning →
If you would rather run creative media yourself, YCM Go gives your organisation the training, supervision, materials and kit to do it.
Find out about YCM Go →
Audio Art & Podcasting Foundation
Our young people's workshops begin with audio media, which our experience shows creates the conditions where confidence builds quickly. As participants gain skills and comfort, the work expands into video, visual storytelling, and other forms.
What Participants Learn: Audio recording and editing, podcast creation and broadcasting, jingle making and sound design, digital visual creation, field experience documenting real community events.
Current Delivery: Structured workshop sessions delivered in blocks. Each session is practical and engaging, with all equipment provided and no prior experience needed. Programme length and format vary depending on the cohort and partner organisation.
Recent Impact: Independent evaluation shows 100% confidence improvement amongst participants. Particularly transformative for home-schooled and isolated young people. Some participants progress to volunteer roles and paid opportunities documenting community events.
Museum of London Archaeology described our young participants as 'the crucial key component that made the event so interesting' after they documented an archaeological event at Bideford Library.
Expands Into Video & Multi-Media
As participants build confidence, our work expands into video documentation, visual storytelling, and multi-platform content creation. Young people develop portfolios that demonstrate real capability in media production and digital storytelling. These are not practice projects. Participants create content that organisations actually use.
Cultural and Heritage Documentation Projects
Through our Young Voices in Heritage™ initiative, young people progress from creative skills workshops to working alongside heritage organisations, museums, and community groups on real documentation projects.
Learning happens through authentic work, recording oral histories, creating exhibition content, documenting archaeological events, with professional support throughout.
Register Interest for Young People's Workshops
Supporting Creatives With Accessible Learning
We are developing audio art and podcasting workshops specifically for adults who benefit from supportive, accessible learning environments. Whether you are exploring creative expression for wellbeing, building skills for potential work opportunities, or simply want to learn in a welcoming space, our approach works.
We work at your pace, respecting that everyone's creative journey looks different.
If you are interested in joining or know someone who would benefit, we would love to hear from you.
Protecting Your Creative Work
We run workshops explaining intellectual property rights for creatives, freelancers, and small creative businesses. Because your ideas and creative output are assets worth protecting.
What We Cover: Understanding copyright and creative commons, protecting your creative work and ideas, intellectual property basics for freelancers, why IP matters for economic empowerment.
These sessions happen at our community gatherings (see below) and can be arranged for groups or organisations who want to support their creative communities.
Young people at our June 2024 gathering described the IP presentation as "informative and a great thing" - which tells you everything about how we approach potentially dry topics.
For Organisations
Two ways to work with us.
We deliver. Workshops for your team, community or young people, delivered by our facilitators.
You deliver, we support you.YCM Go gives your organisation the training, supervision, materials and kit to run creative media yourself.
Workshop Delivery
We work with organisations to deliver workshops that meet specific objectives whilst maintaining our participant-centred approach.
Our workshops blend creative skills with wellbeing and economic empowerment, benefiting both your organisation and the people taking part. Alongside developing creativity and connection, potentially across generations if that is what you chose to do, the sessions produce professional media content you can use, turning the ongoing challenge of content creation into something that develops your people at the same time.
What we provide
Qualified, DBS-checked facilitators with proven expertise. Professional equipment, not toy versions. Comprehensive risk assessments and safeguarding protocols. Evaluation frameworks measuring impact. Ongoing support beyond initial delivery, and connection to wider opportunities.
Try it out
We offer introductory sessions where participants explore recording equipment and editing skills. Each person receives a journal for storyboarding ideas, and can work individually or in groups. Our environment respects different ways of working, with refreshments and time to socialise included.
What shapes the cost
Duration and frequency of sessions. Participant numbers and support needs. Equipment requirements and technical complexity. Travel and venue costs. Evaluation and reporting needs.
We're experienced working within grant parameters and can support funding applications.
YCM Go
Youth creative media, run by your team, supported by ours.
We've been running creative media with community that have included young people in Devon since 2022, and growing YCM since 2024. After a lot of enquiries from youth providers, councils and charities, we've made it available for other organisations to run themselves.
What's included
Training for your staff, so they can deliver confidently.
Ongoing supervision and consultation.
Materials and session frameworks.
Equipment, so you're not caught in the cycle of buying kit that dates.
Media publishing guidance, kept current.
Why organisations come to us
Creative media is one of the things young people actually want to do. Getting it running is another matter. Equipment dates quickly, the technology keeps moving, and publishing young people's work brings rules that are easy to get wrong.
We're only one team, and we'd rather more young people had access to this than keep it to ourselves.
How it works
Your staff, your safeguarding, your young people. We provide the framework, the training and the support behind it.
Every organisation is different, so we start with a conversation about what you want to run, who for, and over what period. From there we'll set out what would suit you and what it would cost.
Get in touch about YCM Go → assist@aceholdsthespace.com
We work with organisations to deliver workshops that meet specific objectives whilst maintaining our participant-centred approach.
What we provide:
Qualified, DBS-checked facilitators with proven expertise
Professional equipment - not toy versions
Comprehensive risk assessments and safeguarding protocols
Evaluation frameworks measuring real impact
Ongoing support beyond initial delivery
Connection to wider opportunities
Investment levels:
Workshops are priced according to:
Duration and frequency of sessions
Participant numbers and support needs
Equipment requirements and technical complexity
Travel and venue costs
Evaluation and reporting needs
We're experienced working within grant parameters and can support funding applications. Our track record helps secure funding.
For Participants
Our workshops are either:
Free through funded programmes (majority)
Low-cost through subsidised delivery
Never a barrier to participation
Transport support available for outings. Equipment provided. Refreshments included. Multiple participation options for different comfort levels.
Current opportunities include:
Special projects with heritage organisations
One-off taster sessions
School holiday programmes
The Bigger Picture
Creating Pathways
These are not just workshops. They are pathway creation, from participant to volunteer to employment, from isolation to connection, from silence to confident expression.
Our evidence shows progression is real, sustainable, and meaningful.
Culture and Heritage Preservation
Young people become skilled cultural and heritage documentarians, preserving stories that might otherwise be lost and bringing fresh perspectives to traditional narratives.
They are not 'heritage champions' for the sector. They champion themselves. The heritage preservation is a valuable outcome. Youth development is the heart.
Community Building
When young people gain confidence, families strengthen. When stories are shared, communities connect. When heritage is preserved, identity develops.
The ripple effect extends far beyond individual participants.
Community Gatherings
Spaces for Creatives to Connect
Through Alignment Creation Enterprises (our social enterprise arm), we host free gatherings bringing together creatives, freelancers, small businesses, charities, and community groups across North Devon.
What Happens at our Gatherings:
Networking opportunities for local creatives and organisations, short presentations on relevant topics (like intellectual property, creative empowerment, collaborative opportunities), space to share your work, ideas, and projects, refreshments and welcome in accessible venues, genuine community-led atmosphere - everyone's welcome.
Recent Gatherings:
Launch Gathering - June 2024, Pannier Pantry, Bideford: Explored creativity and passion projects, formed steering group, high engagement - Initial community connections, membership sign-ups
Summer Gathering - July 2024, Burton Art Gallery, Bideford: Public sector networking, presentation on economic hardship and challenges for creatives. Ways to empower and support.
Spring Gathering - March 2025, Barnstaple Library: IP workshop, networking, local business support offers
Next Gathering: Spring 2026 - date and venue to be confirmed. Deliberately scheduled for end of week so professionals can unwind alongside community members. Completely free, refreshments provided, wheelchair accessible.
Join Newsletter for Gathering Updates
Expanding Programmes
Community Creative Sessions
Currently in development based on the success of our youth work.
We are developing programmes for different groups, including adults seeking creative expression, intergenerational heritage projects bridging generations through shared stories, community groups documenting their own histories, and tailored approaches for specific communities.
Each programme is adapted to participant needs whilst maintaining our core principles of psychological safety, participant-led progress, and genuine respect.
Tailored Workshop Delivery
We can develop workshops for specific communities, including heritage organisations, libraries, community centres, and schools looking for alternative learning approaches.
Our methodology
Our work draws on fifteen years of research into how people learn together, refined through community practice since 2022. We deliver evidence-based programmes with documented outcomes, working at the pace of each participant.
The detail of how we work is shared with commissioning partners through professional discussion. Our published evidence speaks to what we deliver.
The team behind it
Youth engagement specialist. Qualified youth worker with extensive SEND experience and expertise in supporting neurodivergent young people, alongside film-making and visual production experience.
Programme lead. Fifteen years of public sector and organisational culture development expertise, with media production experience starting in community radio. Developed the methodology through systematic research and practice.
Professional filmmaker. Documentary and visual content expertise, bringing broadcast-quality standards alongside community-centred working.
Peer support facilitators. Young people with experience in voluntary youth engagement, supporting newer participants with authentic encouragement.
Young Voices in Heritage™
Our Flagship Initiative
Young Voices in Heritage™ is more than workshops. It is systematic transformation, validated through professional partnerships and academic recognition.
The young people who complete this journey discover capacities they did not know they had. Fears dissolve. Isolation breaks down. They chose to call themselves 'The ACE Team', which tells you everything about how they feel about their achievements.
Young Voices in Heritage™ is our original initiative methodology, developed by Ace Holds The Space Group. We are the originators of this innovative approach combining audio art skills with heritage documentation.
Our methodology has been refined through fifteen years of research and applied practice since 2022. Our evidence base demonstrates outcomes that have attracted interest from heritage organisations, libraries, museums and public services.
Audio Art and Heritage Documentation Sessions at Bideford Library
Ages: 10-16 years Format: Workshop blocks with field experience component Equipment provided. No prior experience needed.
Field Experience: Practical application through partnership with the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).
View their professional heritage work featured on MOLA's blog: ACE Team Heritage Interviews.
Our workshops have demonstrated significant positive outcomes in community engagement, reducing isolation, fostering collaboration, enhancing cultural enrichment, and improving participant wellbeing. Their work now features on MOLA's professional blog, demonstrating the real-world value of skills developed.
Contact us to register interest in our next sessions: workshops@aceholdsthespace.com
Audioart and podcasting workshops at Bideford Library are engaging a group of children who eagerly attend each week to explore sound. They are dedicated to their projects and creating impressive sound collages.
Looking for staff, volunteer, or youth development with added value? Our workshops blend creative skills with wellbeing and economic empowerment—benefiting both your organisation and participants.
Triple Impact:
Develop creativity and self-expression
Foster community connections across generations
Create professional media content for your marketing needs
Transform the ongoing challenge of content creation into an opportunity that empowers your people while meeting organisational goals.
Transform your staff and volunteers' capabilities through engaging creative production workshops that deliver both professional skills and wellbeing benefits.
FOR GROUPS AND TEAMS
Also from us
OrgHarmonics
Alongside our creative media work, we support organisations and community groups with their own health. How people work together, and whether the culture is strong enough to sustain what you are trying to do.
Developed by our founder Roshani since 2010, it is a nine stage process delivered through in person workshops, and it travels.
More coming about OrgHarmonics → get in contact to learn more
Ace Holds The Space. Community media production, community co-production, workshops, podcasting and heritage documentation, serving libraries, youth groups and community organisations across Devon.
OUR APPROACH
We offer 'Try it Out' introductory sessions where participants explore recording equipment and editing skills. Each person receives a journal for storyboarding ideas and can create projects individually or in groups.
Our environment respects different ways of working. Inspiration comes from diverse sources, with refreshments and socialisation included.
Adults and Young People (17+) Ready to explore creative media skills? Express your interest today. Email: workshops@aceholdsthespace.com
Alignment Creation Enterprises (our charitable social enterprise arm). Organisations interested in this initiative please contact:service@alignmentcreation.enterprises
