Adele was a participant in the Watershed Young Mums Textile Project
My name is Adele, I’m 16 and I’ve been doing a textile art project for 10 weeks with Soft Touch through our Young Mums Project at the Watershed Centre.
I’ve done bits of art before but I’ve never really been taught how to do it and then teach it. I feel confident that I could teach someone to make felt now. I wouldn’t have been able to do this before. After the sessions I felt really boosted and it made me feel good about myself. It’s probably the only thing I’m doing at the moment that makes me feel like that. I’ve got some beautiful silk paintings in my flat now and people come round and say “oh, where d’you get those”? and I can say “I made them”, and people say they are wicked and they’re really impressed. It gives me a good feeling.
This project has inspired me to carry on and do more arty things. I’ve been able to put on my CV that I’ve done a Soft Touch course and that I’m confident running a session with young people to make felt or do silk painting. I’m going for a job and I’ve got an interview so it’s really helped me.
Adele got the job!
Shane took part in the UrbanXpress project
My name is Shane and I live at the YMCA in Aylestone. I’m 19 and I came to Soft Touch on the UrbanXpress project.
I learned to use Photoshop and I’ve realised I’m quite good at graphic design. I’ve also learned to work as part of a team and got better communication skills. I’ve started breaking out and helping on other Soft Touch projects using Photoshop so I obviously did something right in UrbanXpress. It means I’m actually doing something good, bettering myself and I’ve found something I’m good at other than just sitting on my jacksie playing computer games all the time.
Soft Touch staff tell us how to do things, give a lot of support and work with us closely to make sure that we try to do the best we can. It’s made me more pro-active about doing something about going to college, knowing that I could get up and go somewhere and stick to it. Coming to Soft Touch has opened the door a little wider, I mean for possible different careers.
Now I know I’m good at something else, it kinda broadens my horizons.
Haji first came to Soft Touch through the Pupil Referral Unit
Before I started coming to Soft Touch I didn’t know how to make music – producing or rapping, how to make beats or use the equipment. Now I know how to make tracks, set equipment up and I help others to learn how to do music. In return I get time in the studio to make my own music and I’ve helped out on another Soft Touch project which is about gun and knife crime.
Coming here has given me a lot more confidence, because before I came here I never used to meet anyone new and be able to say “Hi what’s your name”? and talk to them. Now I can do that and ask them if they need help and make them feel comfortable here. I’ve learned a lot.
It’s inspired me to carry on doing music and if I decide to do a music course at college what I’ve learned will help me, as I know how to make beats, I know about tempo, about counting bars, putting beats to a bar you have to be very precise. If I already know this stuff I won’t need so much help at college.
I really enjoy my time at Soft Touch – there’s always different things to do, different people to work with and the staff here are easy to talk with, you can crack jokes with them. Other places I go to do things don’t have all this.
The thing that is different for me since I’ve been coming to Soft Touch is I’ve realised that music has come a lot into me and has change me because the tracks I’ve made are about different things. I’m making tracks about my emotions and feelings and that’s made me feel like I don’t need to hide inside any more, so I’m more respectful these days. I’m not a mean guy no more, I’ve changed a lot.
Kane In Africa!
Kane is now 20 and with a promising career in the music business. He is about to go off a volunteer in Africa for three months. But at age 14 this Aylestone boy was a right pain to the entire community. Expelled from school he was regularly being arrested for theft, criminal damage and assault.
“I had serious problems dealing with my anger – there was only one way I was going.”
Kane started to get off the road to a life of crime and imprisonment when his Youth Offending Service worker Kieran Walsh got him to attend music sessions at Soft Touch Arts
“I’d always wanted to make beats and write lyrics, but never really had the opportunity. I got along with the staff at Soft Touch right away – and suddenly I had something to focus on.I realised I had the chance to make something of myself - that I could have a dream of going on stage in front of thousands, rather than just get in trouble all the time.”
Kane started attending Soft Touch as much he could and the staff encouraged him to become a volunteer, working with other young people from the YOS to develop their skills and find alternatives to the trouble they were getting in.
“It all helped me realise that what I had been doing was stupid – it gave me confidence to know that other people had confidence in me and made me feel I had something to lose."
Eventually Kane became a sessional worker with Soft Touch’s Mash-Up project, a music outreach project run in New Parks that has won plaudits from the local police for its affect on reducing crime and anti-social behaviour. He also represented the UK at an international community arts festival in Rotterdam working with local youth on music production. He has also started working with a local music venue doing marketing and promotion as well as DJ sets.
When international volunteering charity ICS contacted Soft Touch about support for a music project being run in Tanzania, they suggested Kane as ideal candidate. A tough selection process took Kane well outside his comfort zone – competing to take part alongside self-confident, high-achieving law students looking for a gap year project. He amazed himself and got through – so now after a three day induction course in York he’s getting ready to leave in January for Dar Es Salaam where he will work at the House of Talent, a project that engages vulnerable youth through music and along the way is able to hit them with life-saving health messages about issues such as HIV.
“We’re all going to have to get used to living without the stuff we’re used too,” says Kane. “I think we only get three hours of electricity a day and there’s no TV or anything. But I’m just looking forward to the whole experience. I’ve heard the kids out there are into hip-hop and gangster rap but I plan to play some of my stuff – grime and dubstep – and see how they respond. "
“This is going to change my view of everything – right now I’d like to run my own record label, but when I come back – who knows?”.