Hackney Empire Will Release Creative Futures Impact Report Today

As Hackney Empire celebrates 120 years at the heart of the local community, Artistic Director Yamin Choudury and the whole team are pleased to release first details of the new impact report on 20 Years of Creative Futures, which will be launched with a special on-stage event at the iconic East London theatre on 29 June.

Since the first Artist Development Programme (ADP) - an intensive two-week summer programme where a company of up to 40 young people create a new piece of musical theatre performed on stage at Hackney Empire - was launched in 2002, Hackney Empire Creative Futures has used arts and creativity to break down barriers, build confidence and provide creative, professional and personal development for young people regardless of their background, education, income or experience.

The impact report itself is the culmination of the collection of a wide range of data and information over the last twenty years to evaluate the outcomes achieved by Creative Futures. These include survey responses, case studies, interviews, quotes, and delivery outputs, as well as an analysis of outcomes in order to demonstrate the impact and breadth of the work.

Today, Creative Futures annually engages over 2,000 young people aged 12 to 25-years-old. From its inception, Creative Futures set out to reframe 'culture' by using art-forms that young people were already engaged in, including film, popular including acting for stage and screen, popular music such as British Rap and R&B, spoken word and dance. The theatre's unique model of youth engagement has impacted on over 20,000 young lives in its 20-year history.

In total Creative Futures provides an average of 20 hours of free youth programming each week across 45 weeks of the year. These include workshops and masterclasses alongside professionally produced training and performance programmes, all of which are provided free of charge to all participants.

As well as the flagship Artist Development Programme, other key strands of Creative Futures include:

• Alter Ego - founded in 2012, Alter Ego is an event specifically designed to bring together 1,500 young people with high levels of disengagement under one roof, with over 1,300 young people in the audience and 50 young people working behind the scenes, featuring over 90 young performers on stage, providing a massive social media presence and celebrating the aspirations and creative talents of young people in Hackney.
• Schools Outreach / After School and Half Term Programmes such as Creators Collide, aimed at 14 - 25-year-olds with a passion for the arts and creative industries, which included a week of workshops, events and Q&A panels put together by young creatives for the next generation of artists, culminating in in Pure Vibez, a gig that participants could sign up to perform in.
• Creative Development, including Young Producers, providing up to 25 participants from under-represented backgrounds across Hackney with the opportunity to curate and produce an arts and cultural events programme, using Hackney Empire's infrastructure, performance spaces and technical support.
• Limitless - an intensive creative arts programme, collaborating with a company of 40 neurodiverse and disabled young creatives aged 14-25 years old in the summer holidays. The project has run for nine year and is now supported by Children in Need.

The Creative Futures Programme was originally founded in response to the clear need for youth engagement in the borough, which is currently rated seventh highest in the country in terms of Child Poverty, and where 26% of the children and young people in Hackney Empire's locale are living in poverty compared with 17% across England, and where youth unemployment is 30% higher in Hackney than in England as a whole. 90% of Creative Futures participants are from Black, Asian or ethnically diverse communities and around 15% of participants are disabled or neurodivergent young people.

Statistics highlights in the report include:

• 92% of participants surveyed said they experienced greater emotional wellbeing as a result of being part of the Creative Futures Programme
• 97% of participants said they'd developed creative, communication and time management skills
• 85% of participants said Creative Futures improved their chances of getting a job
• 70% of participants said that Creative Futures led them to take part in other cultural or creative activities as artists or producers

Rachel Horowitz, Head of Learning and Participation, said, "It's exciting to share the incredible work we do at HE Creative Futures. Our young creatives are the next generation of artists and decision makers. We hope this report will showcase to the wider community the talent and voices of young people in East London."

Yamin Choudury said, "Arts & Culture changes lives. It's as simple as that.

And for over twenty years, Hackney Empire and Hackney Empire: Creative Futures have been kicking down doors and creating vital access for young people, to not only transform their lives, but also our world.

I'm so proud to have been able to play a small part in this programme for nearly fifteen years, and it is now my job, alongside all of us, to make sure Creative Futures, and programmes like it all over the country, are able to continue to change young people's lives for many more decades."

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