LifePlay Learning came into existence just over a year ago with help from Plymouth’s Neighbourhood Renewal Community Chest fund.  LifePlay is an unincorporated association, ie we have a constitution and currently a committee of 4.  We have a core team of approximately 8-12 performer-facilitators, and another 4 people who join us for our weekly rehearsal evenings.  In addition, we currently have about 12 members who support us from a distance, through paying a small membership fee.  We also have a mailing list of around 2-300 names for our termly newsletter. 

Although some “paid” work was undertaken during the last 6 months, staffing was voluntary because all monies received were ploughed back into LifePlay in order to stay afloat financially.  It became clear that an evaluation of the first year’s “pilot” activities and a comprehensive business plan and 3-year development strategy were vital to secure adequate funding for the future.

LifePlay Learning is a “not-for-profit” group which aims to make a positive contribution to the lives of individuals, local communities, specialist groups and organisations through the use of a range of creative and performing arts media: to improve skills, build confidence and self esteem and enable the empowerment of individuals and communities, groups or organisations. 

 It was a busy year, during which we undertook an extensive range of activities, which were warmly received by groups and individuals, often with the group being invited back, or booked for a different event.  We treated our first year as a pilot project, identifying a wide range of opportunities for delivering activities for “all ages” from pre-schoolers to grandparents and being approached to run events by organisations representing refugees, credit unions, young homeless people, specialist groups, children with special learning needs and carers.

LifePlay Learning has focussed its energies primarily in the Stonehouse area, through obtaining ground floor premises in Manor Street, taking up membership of the local residents association, being involved in local events, eg Family Fun Day, supporting the Stonehouse Professional Forum and shortly to become a placement provider for a new accredited training programme in community development work operated by Groundwork Trust.           

We have performed at numerous Fun Days across the city, taken the project into local schools, community centres and delivered a piece of street theatre for Christmas late night shopping.  We have also used our premises for informal open days and low-key events, eg we were part of the Macmillan Cancer Research charity’s biggest coffee morning in the world in September, which was well supported by local residents. 

Partnership is the heart of our work:  Many of our developments have been a direct response to the requests of other groups or organisations.  For example, we are currently preparing a performance piece promoting volunteering which has been written for use by the local Millennium Volunteers Area Co-ordinator.  Where appropriate, we use performing opportunities to encourage people to consider getting involved with a range of community projects and activities, as well as using them for confidence and self-esteem building or awareness raising of events, activities and promotions.

 We are currently seeking ways of funding a portfolio of new work including children’s workshops and holiday clubs, looking at issues of poverty, family life and street-children in Guatemala; preparing one-off “tasters” for community groups; preparing to train an all-new  team of volunteers and/or students for the Summer “Fetes & Fairs” team and developing training sessions to encourage a wider use of creative arts in community and personal development programmes.

 Funding & partnerships permitting we would love to expand our work with adults and children together, as well as our outdoor summer programme, particularly focussing on using street theatre and puppets in parks and playgrounds to help community groups get messages across to difficult to reach groups.  We are also looking for a number of partners to join us in mounting a pilot project of an original and innovative piece of educational theatre in 2005.

 We are thrilled to announce the success of our recent funding applications to Plymouth SRB Partnership Ltd (Large Community Assets Grant) and Plymouth Neighbourhood Renewal Community Chest Fund for puppetry and sound equipment.  This will provide us with an extensive range of staging and equipment, sufficient to maintain a number of teams simultaneously.  This funding has also secured the second year of our lease for our Manor St premises.

 We have been singularly successful in our funding bids to date, succeeding in 5 of the 6 bids submitted since the project started.  We have also been very well supported by the local press, who have been quick to see the photogenic nature of the work we do, especially the puppets!   We have already identified a number of funding opportunities which we plan to pursue on completion of the business plan and we are looking to develop business opportunities which will enable us to operate on a commercial footing, in addition to undertaking specific grant-funded work.

 The following pages include our aims and objectives, examples of some of the work we undertook during our first six months of operation, current, on-going development opportunities and a few brief conclusions based on our evaluation process to date.

We hope you will enjoy discovering more about our work and if you have any ideas of ways we may be able to partner with you in the future, or ways in which you can help us at this stage of our development, please do not hesitate to contact us.