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Jae Project: Annual ReportJanuary 2005By [Tracey Hutchings - Tanya Carter - Jana Mills]Informing young people about issues relating to justice around the world, in order that they can be responsible global citizens. ***Facilitating young people to be active in bringing change for the benefit of their local and global communities. ***Using the Arts and interactive forms of Education to facilitate others to stand for issues of Justice. Innovative, creative, interactive events engaging young people in issues such as fair trade through the arts. Raising awareness of Human Rights and Children’s rights, Trade and poverty through workshops in schools and the youth sector, training young people in youth work, project planning and overseas experience. Developing our work nationally, working in partnership with projects worldwide. IntroductionIn November 2002, Jae; Justice, Arts, Education was set up as an organisation, in August 2003 we were given Charity status. Jae works in the formal and non formal sector providing workshops, lessons conferences and events on a variety of issues associated with justice, subjects include Rights and Responsibilities, Racism and Prejudice, Poverty and Development, Conflict Resolution and Citizenship. Jae is based in Tottenham, North London; this is an area containing a diverse and multi-cultural population. The students we work with come from a range of racial, religious and cultural backgrounds. We are linked to a local Church in Tottenham called Rainbow Church, we are based in their offices. This year we have seen a variety of developments in our work, including the recruitment of more staff and clarification of roles. We held our second and very successful inter-schools event which looked at the issues of unfair trade in relation to the clothing industry. There has been much interest this year and we are very grateful to our donors for all their support which has allowed us to develop this far we look forward to the future. The TeamWe have a management group of seven people, which is diverse in age, skills, ethnicity and interests. We have three part time members of staff, a coordinator, youth worker and administrator. We also have a freelance youth worker and a number of volunteers who support and contribute to the project. We have also been involved in training young people and have established our management team. Rebecca Dyer who had been working with us for 6 months before working in Sri Lanka for 6 months returned to study development at Brighton University, but retains a vital role in Jae being responsible to making grant applications and assisting with project planning. Tanya Carter after returning from 6 months in Sri Lanka has developed the youth aspects of our work and in the middle returned to Sri Lanka for another 3 months. Tanya has continued to influence the development of Jae and contact with young people. In September 2004 Jana Mills came to work for Jae 2 days a week, assisting with administration tasks and developing our website. Jana had volunteered for Jae as part of DNA. Tracey Hutchings received an award from Ken Livingstone in July as part of London Day, She was awarded the Ambassador of London award for Innovation, this acknowledge the events that have been held over the last few years merging the arts with justice issues for young people. Event 2004 - Flight of FashionOn Thursday November 4th 2004, Tottenham based charity, JAE, hosted the FLIGHT OF FASHION Inter-schools Event. It was attended by over 150 students, aged 14 to 16, from ten schools across London. The day educated and encouraged young people to think about their role as consumers of fashion items, and to inform them just how much their choices can alter the lives of people across the globe. The morning kicked off with a fast paced fashion show, with hip-hop act Foreign Beggars providing the music to go with the ‘MTV’ style show. The students were then taken in groups through the ‘Flight of Fashion’ instillation playing the role of a sweatshop worker. Each room was designed to expose the issues facing factory workers who work to make clothes which we buy on the high street. The students were confronted with the truth about child labour and the living conditions which many people must go home to, after work. Students had to decide how to spend their tiny wages, having to choose between feeding their family or blowing their pay on the latest mobile phones! In other workshops, they found out about managers and how “quality control” can lead to unfair pay cuts, they also had to comment on a drama piece which highlighted the threats workers face when they attempt to form unions. During lunch each student was rewarded for the mornings work, according to the stamps and stickers present in their passports they received various rewards, if they had done badly they might have got a raisin but for the lucky few a chocolate bar was on offer. After lunch there was a video presentation specially recorded for the event by Wayne Hemingway, of Hemingway Design and founder of Red and Dead. He talked about the fashion industry and the impact that fair trade and ethical consumers can have on the lives of workers overseas, encouraging the young people to think about the impact of their choices. In the afternoon the students were given the opportunity to express their opinions on what they had learnt through a variety of interactive workshops, including: DJ’s, dance, art and the young people’s designs. This all came together for a final fashion show, in which many of the students participated, starting with a drumming performance featuring special UV lighting. Some students had made contributions toward Speak’s Big Dress Campaign and others designed clothes with Traid, which they modelled on the catwalk. There were also students presenting the masks they had designed in the art workshop. Gav Lawson from The Hemp Trading Company led a workshop on graphic design and the young peoples tshirt designs were projected onto the big screen, while the drama group performed a short play which they had written. There was also an energetic performance from the dance group and an informative PowerPoint display from the journalism group, with the MC workshop group finishing the day performing with Robert Prendergast and Ererm Buckle of Urban Mission. “Stunning! An excellent way of involving every student and enableing them to learn about the issues in a fun way. Really powerful everything was top quality.” – Ita Pugh [St. Anne’s Catholic High School for Girls] BitterSweetOn February 3rd and 4th 2005 Jae hosted the BitterSweet experience in Devonshire Hill Primary School with year 5 on the first day and year 6 on the second day. These were two very interactive and exciting days filled with lots of fun and lots of chocolate. All of the students were separated in to 3 groups each going to a separate instillation room: Through out the morning the students encountered a range of activities and ideas, having to take on the role of different people from cocoa farmers to chocolate company directors. They filled their faces with chocolate fondue, marshmallows and more chocolate fondue. They were exposed to issues such as unfair rates of pay, and having to make choices about what they would buy such as education, books, food, healthcare, rent, etc depending on the needs. This bought up many issues, as many families did not have enough to buy their basic needs. They were presented with the idea of increasing profits by paying farmers less, and then they were then exposed to the harsh reality of how much people do get paid, with the farmers getting such a small amount. Looking at what they had used before they got to school bought up much discussion on how much we rely on people we have never meet to make things that we use every day and a lot of these people are paid unfairly. Through out the morning they considered the process of cocoa from the pod to the bar. The workshop ended with a discussion on child labour and poverty. The students spoke about why they don’t have to work and why many other children in the world do. In the afternoon there were exciting workshops including drumming, dance and art. In the art workshop the students decorated chocolate cookies, expressing what they had learnt about fair-trade. The day ended with all the students presenting their work to each other. The day was a huge success leaving the students informed and a sense of empowerment that they can make a difference. Realeyez
Promotion EventWe invited those who support our work and those who are interested in our project and activities to an evening to see the DVD of Flight of Fashion, see some of the young people who did the dance workshop perform and take part in a short drumming workshop. This evening was an exciting showcase for our achievements and exposing people to our future plans. All those who attended were given an information pack explaining our achievements and plans. NewsletterSince our first electronic newsletter in May 2003, in December we sent out issue 7 in December 2004. We have developed it to become more interactive with our website and have changed the style and layout which is proving very popular. We have produced a leaflet which explains aspects of our work, this was designed by Emma Geraghty DVD Flight of FashionWe have a DVD of Flight of Fashion from November 2004 which is currently available, this was filmed and edited by Jon Bilbrough. WebsiteWe have continued to develop our site, and are now regularly updating information, and have more plans for creating a more interactive space for people. With the development of the newsletter this now links to the appropriate pages on the site directly. AccountsFunding this year has increased, we have received money from:
[www.jaeproject.org.uk/funding.html] Schools work and linksProvided a session for young people in Petworth in West Sussex also for DNA a year training scheme. Have provided some sessions on behalf of Unicef in a number of schools including a citizenship day for year 8 in Essex. Have consulted some young people about our event, ideas they had for future events and how things could be improved. PartnershipsWe have benefited from additional business support and advice, including the opportunity for training. Diana Hudson from Prevista has worked with the team and enabled 3 staff members to access various training including grant writing, appraisals and volunteer management. Provided some consultation information from Sri Lanka which will contribute to a document that is being produced by the International Action Against Child Poverty, which will presented at the G8 later on this year. Future plans and focus
ConclusionWe have been really excited with the interest and support that people have shown for Jae over the past year. We had over 16 people involved in the planning of the event which was great for us all as a team and we really appreciate peoples support and encouragement. It has been exciting see how we have developed our work to create enjoyable but educational days involving interaction and the arts, with those involved commenting on the high quality of the presentation. We have developed some great connections with fair trade companies which are supporting our initiatives. Through our work we believe that we have remained true to our aims and kept the work focused on promoting justice through the arts and education. Additional InformationManagement Team:
Jae has been supported by:
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