Working with Looked After Children is immensely important to us. It is the cornerstone of our work and has been since the company began. We have over twenty-five years pioneering experience in this field. The approach is multi-disciplinary; but our main media are music and film.
We have worked in partnership with Social Services, Children’s Services, Foster Carers, LACE teams, NCH Action for Children, Barnardo’s, the Foster Care Associates.

We have been working in partnership with Cumbria Children's Services for the past two years and are delivering a service level agreement for creative arts work with looked after children across Cumbria.

If you are working with us on a project with Cumbria Children's Services why not visit our website especially for you: www.everydreammatters.org here you can read about your own project and see some of the work we have done together.

The Pledge - make it real

We have been working alongside Cumbria Children's Services with young adults from the West Coast of Cumbria and South Lakes exploring their responses to the Parenting Pledge. This is a set of promises to all children and young adults who are looked after.

Our group of young adults have been thinking about The Pledge and what it means to them, they have made six key sentences and created new artworks, postcards, banners, animations and two new songs.

The work can all be seen in a touring exhibition which launches in July 2010 and will then tour Cumbria for the rest of the year.

click here to go to our gallery where you can see the postcards and banners.

click here to go to our Vimeo webpage to view the songs and animations that are in the exhibition.

Sing Up! - Beyond the Mainstream 2010/11 - New Notes

We have already run two successful New Notes projects in Barrow in 2009 and 2010. The same team are just about to launch our new programme:

Working with BtM we are in the planning & training stage of New Notes Barrow and New Notes Kendal. This workforce development project will train five musicians and one graduate apprentice.

Workshops with young people begin in the autumn 2010.

Children's Homes Projects.

Our teams of artists have been working with staff and young people from three Children's Homes:

Hawthwaite Lane, Barrow-in-Furness. Film, digital music, creative writing, photography.

Overend Road, Whitehaven. "Blank Canvas" - making new canvasses for the house, including a brilliant felt picture.

The Grange, Carlisle. Photography, songwriting and CD recording. Producing a series of wonderful hard back photo books and a calendar.

The Nano Diaries - Kendal & Carlisle.

Three of our artists have worked with eight young trainers aged 16+ looking at techniques of creative writing, poetry and filmmaking.

Each young trainer will now work with their own group of young people using iPod nano's to make video diaries. These will be collated onto DVD for a screening in October 2010.

The project will also produce a series of hardback books.

Every Dream Matters. November 2009

Now available on iTunes - visit iTunes and rate the song.

Coming soon - Every Dream No 1 Campaign - don't buy the song yet, wait until you hear from us - we'll all buy it on the same day to try and get the song to No 1 in the iTunes chart!

Young people perform in London at the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 20th Anniversary celebrations.

A group of eight young people from all over the county braved the elements and travelled to London on Nov 19th,( the day of the incredible floods).

Despite the weather the group managed to get to London to stay overnight. The next day they performed their song in the palatial setting of Lancaster House for the 20th Anniversary conference to celebrate the UN Rights of the Child - we were honoured to be invited and delighted to perform. Well done to all the young people and staff who worked hard to give an unforgettable performance which was praised by ministers and delegates alike.

The Children's Commissioner for England, Sir Al Aynsley-Green and Children's minister Baroness Morgan commented that they were extremely impressed by the talent and enthusiasm of all who performed.

The history of the song

Working with Urban Voice Musical Director & composer Tyndale Thomas, our group of looked after children travelled from Cumbria to Liverpool to record their new song, “Every Dream Matters” with the One Voice Community Choir, in Parr Street Studios autumn 08.

The young people performed the song in London in November 08 for ministers and the secretary of state, Ed Balls who commented, "a truly inspriing performance".

The suggestion was made that the song be adapted as an anthem for looked after young people.
The CD can be purchased from our office, or you can hear it on our home page, or download it direct from iTunes.

Every Dream Matters - the film
An insight into the needs and joys of being a foster carer, this 22 min film is part of Cumbria Children's Servicesnew foster care recruitment campaign. We made this film working closely with looked after children and foster carers to tell real stories.

click here to see a shortened version of the film

The West Coast Social Stars
Digital media, music and filmmaking with looked after children on the West Coast of Cumbria in partnership with the county LACES service.

click here to hear one of the songs written during the project, the story of Little Leah.

Huge thanks to P for letting us feature this wonderful piece of work on our site.

8 short films (2008)

8 short films about the lives, dreams, hopes and hobbies of young people who are looked after in Cumbria.

The young people have worked alongside our team and have been involved in every aspect of producing their movies. The films are being screened on Charge TV, Sky channel 539, Virgin TV 233. Freeview 87. They premiered in July 09 at the Cinema Room at the Canteen Media Centre, Barrow-in-Furness.

Click here to visit our Vimeo site to check out some of these great films or visit click here to visit Lakes TV where you can also see them.