The first of our funding news in June 2012 is the successful joint bid with Letting in the Light to run animation workshops for young people with learning disabilities. We have been granted funding both from Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough council and Staffordshire County Council.

The main aim of this project is to use animation as the vehicle to develop and deliver an out of school, pilot digital media programme for young people with special needs and disabilities and their parents/carers & siblings.

Animation is the perfect vehicle to engage a group with a wide range of interests, abilities and needs. The project will be bespoke to the participants and will explore a range of digital and related hands on activities e.g.story boarding, photography, sound, music production, image manipulation, as well as more recognised animation and editing techniques, such as time lapse, istop motion and so on. Groups will have access to a range of state of the art equipment and software to create exciting visuals, soundscapes and animated scenes.

The power of using animation for this group is in it’s endless possibilities. Any idea can be converted into an animation and similarly any object, person or situation can be animated, particularly when you combine the process with the groups limitless imaginations.

The young people, parents/carers & siblings taking part in the project will have the opportunity to create and present a final animation, completely relevant to them, in a high profile shared event. Through the project the parents/carers & siblings will take on the role of supporting the young peoples’ digital explorations and creations.