Ever wanted to start your own business or social enterprise? Join The Agency and turn your passion into a real-life project.
The Agency is a youth enterprise project that works with young people from marginalized areas to create social enterprises, events, projects and businesses that will have a positive impact on their local communities. It uses a creative method developed in the Favelas of Rio De Janerio.
Your idea can be about anything you like, from a boxing workshop to a music festival or a film project, as long as you can demonstrate how it inspires positive change in your community.
You’ll be invited to pitch your idea to a panel of experts and, if successful, be given £2000 to turn your passion into a project, business or social enterprise, as well as professional support and guidance to help you succeed.
Delivered in the Moston and Harpurhey areas of North Manchester, and the Clapham Junction and Battersea areas of London (in collaboration with Battersea Arts Centre and People’s Palace Projects) in 2017 The Agency was awarded £883,771 by the Big Lottery Fund to grow the project nationally to communities in Belfast and Cardiff in collaboration with FabLab Belfast and The National Theatre of Wales.
We have recently published a detailed report on the delivery of The Agency in Manchester and London. You can view it here: Agency Interim Report October 2017
The Agency was originally developed by the Brazilian theatre maker and journalist Marcus Faustini in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, where the project has become a major force for change – Agencia de Redes para Juventude. The UK pilot was funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
In 2016 Agency participants from Manchester and London presented to politicians and policy-makers at the Houses of Parliament, speaking about their projects and the impact of the programme on their communities. The project was also the focus of a major Telegraph article: How the Rio Slums inspired a startup Revolution.
The Agency is funded by the Big Lottery Fund.
