Free Theatre Trip For Every 5 Year Old in Lewisham

Hello, I was wondering if I could appeal to all SE23’ers.

I am running a scheme, as part of the Albany in Deptford, to raise money to give every 5 year old child in Lewisham a free trip to the theatre.

‘Every Child’ is a community based, charitable campaign that will provide a free ticket for every five-year-old in the borough to go to the theatre. Jude Law is our Founding Patron (he’s a Lewisham lad!) and the campaign is endorsed by Sir Steve Bullock and Lewisham Council.

Many children living in Lewisham are unable to experience arts and cultural activity due to barriers including cost, travel and lack of cultural capital deeply ingrained through longstanding deprivation in the borough. Arts and culture have a huge role to play in promoting wellbeing, stimulating community cohesion and tackling social isolation. Engaging children at a young age is proven to have a significant impact on their behaviours and habits as adolescents and adults. By engaging with children through schools, and establishing their relationship with, and right to attend arts venues, we hope to begin a lifelong connection to arts and culture, ensuring no future adult is locked out of cultural engagement.

Our aim is to raise £40,000 to give 4,000 Lewisham youngsters their first trip to the theatre. The more money we raise the more local children we can reach. As part of the Lewisham Small and Faith Grants scheme we are crowdfunding for the first 1000 tickets. Anything you can do to support is much appreciated, in these early stages we need as many supporters as possible to build momentum.

There’s loads more info in the link below or drop me a line at cassie.raine@thealbany.org.uk if you’d like to have a chat about it.

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/a-theatre-trip-for-every-child

Thank you very much for your time.

I think my first trips to the theatre were to see pantomimes at Catford Broadway.

Are the performances due to be held at the Albany? Deptford is quite far from the south of the borough and not on a direct transport route. Can you do some performances at the Catford Broadway theatre?

And does the free admission include an accompanying adult carer or are you intending to attract school groups? One of the barriers to participation could be lack of interest or prior experience among the adult family members. It would be useful to try to cultivate their enthusiasm too, as they’ll be the ones facilitating the child’s future engagement with theatre, outside of the school environment.

Isn’t it amazing how our first trip to the theatre is remembered forever, which is exactly why this scheme is so vital!

In answer to your question, yes, we will be working through schools. Transport is a huge barrier for many and sometimes easier for a school to organise than parents. Deptford is a way from Catford but hopefully working through the schools will make it easier.

The overall aim of this initiative, which is a pilot, is to design a system that can be rolled out across the UK at different theatres. We are working in partnership with ARC in Stockton who are exploring their own ways of fundraising from their local community. At the end of the two year trial period we will compare notes and see what works best.

In terms of working with parents our hope is that if a child/ school is able to participate in the scheme they will have a great time and talk about it at home, which could be the beginning of further engagement for the whole family.

Thank you for your interest! Do let me know if you have any other questions.

Cassie, I think what you are doing is amazing & as I said when I spoke to you I will happily help in anyway I can with this.

Please keep me updated on sugarmountain.info@gmail.com

& pop by anytime for an impromptu meeting