Encourage excitement, diversity, innovation and talent by removing barriers to progression for young people in the creative industries.
Use the unique qualities of arts involvement as a catalyst to enable young people to gain the skills; practical, emotional and social to thrive and successfully transition from education to a career or further training
Promote excellence, bring young people into contact with inspiring practitioners, to enable creative business start up and engagement with contemporary maker and sustainability movements.
Create a resilient, independent and innovative creative community by developing, testing and sharing innovative and sustainable business models.
Teach economic survival skills, freelancing, entrepreneurial and self-employment skills, encourage and promote life long learning and career development through non-traditional routes.
Bring small scale manufacturing back to the town centre’s, turning empty shops into workplaces, to create products, curiosity, and make visible the hand made.
Promote enterprise, entrepreneurial activity and a do it yourself approach to improving your own life, community and economy.
Director of Future Foundry Lisa Oulton, had first hand experience of the negative effects of youth unemployment, from struggling to find permanent work after leaving school to experiencing life as a young single parent living on benefits. She was fortunate to have the support that enabled her to return to education and build a career in the creative industries.
In 2012, after fifteen years devising and running arts projects and working with young people she was shocked to see how little had changed for young people. She set up Future Foundry in response to the difficulties facing young people leaving school today, to help them successfully transition from school to work and to address the barriers to entry facing young people who want a career in the creative industries.
She had noticed that the young people who are able to progress, in the arts and other industries were those with family or connections that could create an open door, or bridge for the young person. With youth unemployment increasing and many young people lacking networks of any kind, she created Future Foundry to provide that bridge.
Future Foundry’s projects bring young people together with people in their communities that can help them progress – creating connections and highlighting pathways. They promote the creative industries and encourage people to be inspired by, and access creative training and cultural events.
By bringing together the very different approaches of the creative, environmental and business sectors, Future Foundry acts to resolve the real economic, spatial and social problems faced by our communities.
Lisa is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and The School for Social Entrepreneurs.