Youth creative media, run by your team, supported by ours
Your staff. Your safeguarding. Your young people. We provide the framework, the training and the support behind it
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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 have been running creative media with communities in Devon since 2022, and growing YCM since 2024. After a steady stream of enquiries from youth providers, councils, cultural venues and charities, we have made the programme available for other organisations to run themselves.
We’re only one team. We would rather more young people had access to this than keep it to ourselves.
Why organisations come to us
What young people take away
Media skills are the way in. What changes goes further than that.
Interviewing. Asking a question, listening properly to the answer, then asking the next one. It is a harder skill than it sounds and it transfers everywhere.
Finding the words. Young people arrive unsure how to say what they think and leave able to say it, out loud, to people they do not know.
Working with others. Real collaboration on a real piece of work with a project target, where what one person does affects everybody else.
Coming out of isolation. A good number of the young people who come to us are not connected to much. Creative media gives them a reason to be in a room with other people, and something to do once they are there.
Becoming part of their community. Young people who were on the edge of the place they live end up known in it, through work that other people see.
Ready for work. Confidence that holds up in an interview, a workplace, and a room full of adults
The methodology behind it
Everything we deliver runs on G.I.F.T.S®, a framework developed since 2010 and applied in community practice since 2022. It is not a media skills curriculum.
Five elements, run in sequence, because the sequence is doing the work.
G. Grounding. Safety and Direction
I. Inspire. Shared stories
F. Freedom. Creative expression
T. Trust. Personal strength
S. Support. Young people move from being supported to supporting each other.
Two things sit underneath it. Audio comes before video, because confidence builds more easily when nobody has to be on camera. And progress is not linear, so participants move at their own pace rather than through a timetable.
This is delivered by trained facilitators working under supervision, which is why YCM Go is training and licence rather than a pack in the post.
The training
Twelve weeks, plus two weeks assessment.
Twelve sessions across the twelve weeks: eight across the delivery blocks, one on digital accessibility, two on equipment and software, and one on learning the process of evaluation, reporting and administration of the YCM Go work.
Two people from your organisation train together. They co-facilitate afterwards, and it means you are not left with nothing if one of them moves on. Up to two more from the same organisation can join at discounted additional cost.
Shared cohorts. Organisations and freelancers buy into the training together, which brings the cost down for each of you. It works in much the same way as shared first aid training. A single cohort does not exceed ten people.
A digital accessibility consultant works with the cohort as part of the course, so what your team delivers is reachable by the young people you are trying to reach as well as the wider, diverse community.
Your trained staff work to the same standards we hold ourselves to. DBS checks, risk assessment and safeguarding practice are covered in the training, and the assessment at the end is there because a licence carries our name as well as yours.
What comes with the license
Session frameworks and materials, kept current, so your staff are not building sessions from scratch.
Someone to check in with. Regular contact while you are delivering, for the questions that come up.
Equipment on lease, as an option, so you are not caught in the cycle of buying kit that dates.
Technical support, so a failed recorder on a Tuesday evening is not the end of the session.
Safeguarding and publishing. Your safeguarding stays yours. What we provide is guidance on publishing young people’s work, which is where the rules are easiest to get wrong, and training so your staff know where the lines sit.
Editing support for content creation, as an option, where you want the finished work to a professional standard.
Help getting it funded. Most organisations come to us before the money is in place. We can give you the costings, the outcomes and the wording to put into a bid, and be named as delivery partner where that helps.
Who is it for
Youth charities and youth services. Local authorities and town councils. Libraries, museums and cultural venues. Schools, colleges and alternative provision. Community groups and CICs. Freelance practitioners.
You might already have the will, the venue and the young people, without the framework, the kit or the confidence to begin. That is the gap this fills.
Most of this work is with young people, and that is where the framework was built. It is not limited to them. We have run the same approach with adults and with mixed-age groups, where bringing together people who would not otherwise be in a room is the point. If that is closer to your situation, get in touch and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.
Evidence you can pass on
Youth participants report increased confidence and social connections
Documented progression from participant to volunteer to paid work
Professional validation from MOLA, Museum of London Archeology
Accepted for presentation at TAG2025
If your trustees or your funder want more than a bullet list, ask and we will put something together you can submit.
Who is it for
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 set out what would suit you and what it would cost.
We will have questions for you as well. When in the year training would work around your delivery, how your funding year falls, and what would make this workable for your staff. Bring what you know and we will work it out together. We can also support a cross-generational delivery for wider inclusion and access in a similar vein outside of the youth creative media work.
Or email assist@aceholdsthespace.com
Beyond youth work
The framework was built with young people and most of our work is still there. It is not limited to them. We have run the same approach with adults, and with mixed-age groups where the point is bringing people together who would not otherwise be in a room.
If you work with a different group and something here sounds relevant, get in touch and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.