Helping the community & becoming debt free

clarkylou

I have been trying to come up with things that will help my financial situation, things I can do. The main skill I have is that I teach music and have about 9 years experience of doing so. I teach tin whistle and have worked with a variety of groups and in schools. I can no longer teach for the majority of organisations who provide trad music classes/ lessons because I'm working for an organisation that allocates funding, so it's a conflict of interest. This has cut out one of my main earning capabilities.

I have taken on a couple of private pupils, and tried to start up a community class (the hall was closed due to lack of funding before we even got started). I've been missing teaching in schools, it's really rewarding and a challenge. I've also been looking at music provision for young people and have been despairing about the lack of opportunity for young people to learn about traditional music and to learn an instrument. I also know from experience that teacher's love the input from these types of workshops because it hits alot of their 5-14 express arts targets. However their is also a lack of funds available for this type of activity. :mad:

So my idea is to set up a website where people can donate money to a fund that will enable me to visit schools across the central belt of Scotland, providing tuition in tin whistle. The sums are as follows: 100 people donating £1 would allow me to provide six weeks of 30 mins tuition to between 30 - 40 pupils. For every five sessions I do one session for free.

What are people's initial reactions? Do you think it will work? I know there is a demand in the schools.

Storm

Hi ClarkyLou,

I think it's a brill idea - though as it would effectively be a small charity/voluntary organisation you were setting up would this still be a conflict of interest?

Incidentally - can you send some of your organisation's funding mt way? I've had to stop the community singing classes I was teaching this year because of lack of funding (boo!)

The other thing for raising more money that springs to mind is do you play with a traditional music group? Could you hire yourselves out for parties, weddings etc?

Storm

clarkylou

Hi Storm,

No it won't be a conflict of interest by doing this, I'm not allowed to work for any organisations/ projects that receive funding from the organisation. I only work part-time for them and they are fully aware of my other commitments as I run my own arts company.

As for sending you some funding, unfortunately we only support organisations in Scotland. Have you tried charitable trusts, Awards for All or getting sponsorship from local businesses for your classes?

I already do gigs; background music, community events & concerts, I admitt not very many as I have got caught up in the administration side of things the past few years.

Thank you for your response, I am going to look into it further and see what the best route would be to take.

homersimpson_3

What are people's initial reactions? Do you think it will work? I know there is a demand in the schools.

Honestly- I would very suspicious and ask what's the real reason this website is actually undertaking this role? For £100 you would be giving 6 weeks of 30 mins - 3 hours- £33.33 an hour. Seems expensive. How much are teachers paid in school/local colleges etc? What is the going rate? How does it compare to teaching for other musical instruments? What else would you provide- music sheets, books, tapes etc?

clarkylou

Sorry I didn't explain it very well. What I mean was spending one hour in a school taking two groups for 30 minutes each. So it would be £100 for 6 hours work which works out at £16.60 an hour, the rate I normally charge for this is £22-£25 per hour plus travel (inline with Musician Union rates). I also have all the materials as I have been teaching in primary schools for about 9 years. Each session would involved between 15-20 children (anymore and you don't achieve anything). So if I managed to raise say £500, at least a extra 150 children would have the opportunity to learn basic music skills and more about the Scottish culture.

So it's actually a very good deal for everyone, I know this because for the past 6 years I have been a arts development worker setting up such projects in schools, community groups, for adults, kids etc. A project like this would normally cost at least £250 for six weeks 2 x one hour classes.

The other thing that I can offer the schools is staff training so they can help and encourage the kids to practise, I actually have a teaching pack especially designed for primary school teachers for this reason. This means that there is more chance of the pupils carrying it on beyond the course of workshops.

The real reason behind the website would be to provide funds to get more traditional music into schools, if I could afford to do more voluntary work I would but at this moment in time I need to earn at least something. I also know that school and local authority budgets are tight, so thought that it would be a cost effective way of providing access to instrumental tuition to all the children in a class and not just a select few.

I knew that there might be suspicion about it that's why I asked for people's thoughts. I have contact with a few organisations who would probably help in the fundraising and because they are charities we could probably do it through justgiving.com

Hope this explains it better.

homersimpson_3

what about national lottery grant or asking a major firm in Central Scotland for sponsorship- could you put their logo on your van (or whatever) so they get free advertising? What major employers operate in Central Scotland?

clarkylou

I'm not eligible to apply for Lottery funding again because of the organisation I work for. However the sponsorship maybe a good route to go down, many companies have social/ community policies which involve them sponsoring worthwhile projects in their area (although they are normally well subscribed to) - they might go for it because I'm providing a certain amount for free (which maybe could be increased).

My other option is to organise fundraising events for such a programme (ceilidh's, concerts etc...)

Cheers homer I'll have a look into the company sponsorship thing.