A St Denys group has won funding to produce community radio programmes - and is encouraging more people to get involved.The idea is to establish a monthly magazine-style programme centred around St Denys, and also covering Portswood and Bitterne Park.
Ł9.600 has been won from the Government’s Ł20m Transformation Fund, which supports informal adult learning - learning for pleasure, self-development and community development, and which awards cash to a wide range of projects all with the objective of seeing “creative learning flourish across the country”.
Project partners are TWICS (Training for Work in Communities), SoCo Music Project (Southampton Community Music Project) St Denys Community Association, which manages St Denys Community Centre and Southampton City Council Adult Learning and Skills department.
“Training for Work in Communities (TWICS) is delighted to be working in partnership with local groups and residents in the St Denys area to take forward this project, which grew out of a pilot programme developed by a group of local people during the summer,” explains Barbara Hancock from TWICS.
Producing a radio show will offer local people a chance to learn and access various media and related skills - from presenting, editing and marketing to the various technical skills required. The programme itself aims to “celebrate the life of the local community” and promote local identity.
Programmes will be made available via the internet as ‘podcasts’ through bitternepark.info and portswood.info, as well as via the group’s own page. They will be also be made available on CD. The groups says in the longer term it’s possible an ongoing ‘streaming’ radio service could be established.
The existing team is currently working on a fresh name for the show and recruiting new members. They are very keen to hear from anyone who’d like to pitch in and get involved at whatever level — or who would be willing to ‘tell their story’ on one of the programmes. No experience is required — and the team says it’s very friendly!
To find out more, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.