YMCA Digital

After what can only be described as a messy state of affairs at Soundwave Festival 2014, the Nottingham crew was winding down with half a litre of Long Island Iced Tea each in an open air bar overlooking the sea in Croatia. The usual philosophical festival natter began to surface, but there was someone with something to say who made everyone's tabs twitch.

Band member of Origin One and The Afterdark Movement, co-founder of Phlexx Records, and pursuer of his own solo career, Ben Zięć, aka Trekkah, is a bit crackers for music. But that's not his only passion. He's also a Community Arts Practitioner for YMCA Digital, an organisation delivering creative arts and digital media to Nottingham teenagers. After listening to him recall deaf people experiencing music primarily through vibration rooms and delivering parenting workshops to mams who couldn't help but fall in love with him, I had to find out more.

I was greeted at the NGY building by local musician Nina Smith, who showed me around YMCA Digital's state-of-the-art equipment in their editing suite, recording studio and performance space. “We rent the facility down here,” says Ben. “NGY is an umbrella organisation. We’ve got Nottingham Forest in here, NHS, Base51, YMCA. It’s the one stop shop for young people to get advice on CV building and jobs as well as a launderette service and showers. We deal with the media stuff.”

What exactly does that involve? “We work with kids who’ve been kicked out of school, and then kicked out of the kick-out places. We deliver NCFEs; introductory awards and certificates in Music Technology, podcasting, DJ, radio and photography. That’s all linked up with our partner company, The Zone, who do the English, Maths, Key Skills and I.T sessions. We also host The Young Creatives here. After school, any young person can come and get involved in everything from photography sessions to music sessions, to film to creative writing, to dance, drama, art and radio.”

That’s not all. “We’ve just done a project with the barracks kids in Chilwell, integrating them with the kids in the local area. We get home-schooled students, kids who come through from youth offenders, people from the charity Base51 who might be young carers - a complete mixture. With our outreach work, we might target refugees in a local area who aren’t integrating so well and work with them to do just that.”

With the myriad of activities, it takes a certain type of person to work at YMCA Digital. Having always been a Christian organisation, the staff go by specific values of care, respect, honesty and responsibility. “I’m not a Christian myself, and you don’t have to be religious in any form to work here. All the people delivering sessions are good people and they want to make a difference to the community,” explains Ben. “They say there are maternal or paternal types of youth workers but I think it’s important to have a good balance of the two – someone who can be warm and welcoming but can also help them get back on track. Everyone needs structure in their lives. In order to do that we gain teaching qualifications, learn how to deal with aggressive behaviour, do classroom management training, creative training for delivering sessions and safeguarding training with the council.”

It’s important that as well as structure, the kids gain experience with real people working within the media industry. The organisation uses local artists to host workshops, whether it’s on a casual basis, full-time or for one-off sessions. People who've been involved include Miss 600 guitarist Ian Marshall, Nina Smith, Bru-C and Jonno of The Afterdark Movement, Origin One, Kevin Thompson, Yazmin Lacey, Andre Nichols, aka Jungle Wire (co-director of The Chase - a film following the lives of Nottingham teenagers), Kidda Beats, Another Poet, artist Sara Baker (who redecorated The Maze), Birdie Mack, Random Recording’s Guy Elderfield, Kemet FM’s Jacky P and Juicy Lucy. The list goes on.

Ben reckons radio is one of the best tools for social development, and he's not the only one. Local beatboxer Motormouf experienced its powers first hand, using the medium to build his confidence in working with others. “It brings so much out of people,” says Ben. “Confidence, communication, planning, structure – radio hits them all, and it's what YMCA Digital started on.” Running as an online station, the sound waves are filled with everything from debates to music genre-specific shows. One of Ben's ambitions for the station is to increase its size and integrate with the wider community. “It'd be great to get podcasts from arts labels and music crews like RubberDub and Tumble.”

Unfortunately things aren't quite so simple, as a lot of what happens in the facility relies heavily on funding. “It comes from loads of different sources. Youth Music Funding does our music stuff, First Light does our film, there's also Awards for All - the Big Lottery Fund. With there being loads of streams, we might have ideas for the radio station, but if the Youth Music bid comes in then we’re doing a lot of music, because that’s where the funding lies. That's just the way it works.”

They've done a sweet job so far, despite any such limitations. Local rapper Kane Ashmore vouches for the professionalism of the organisation as well as the fun vibe, “It's one of the best places to create in Nottingham. When me and Motormouf went, it turned into one big jam with people singing along and skanking in the studio.”

YMCA Digital and its staff have nurtured some amazing young talent in our city, including the now world-famous Jake Bugg. “We’ve got a good team of creative people,” says Ben. “We don’t necessarily try and make the next big singer. Obviously it’s good if that happens, but it’s more about social skills and being part of a community.” Still, incentives to succeed are pushed. After winning The Young Creatives performance competition last year, Josh Wheatley earned himself a slot at the organisation's Nottingham Contemporary gig as well as studio time at Random Recordings with Guy Elderfield.

Having artists and musicians working at the facility means there are challenges regarding responsibility for setting an example. “We’ve all got personal art concepts and material that we put out, so sometimes you have to tip-toe around the line. It’s particularly hard for emcees, but we’re not going to have someone working for us that’s rapping about gang violence... even though they can be inspiring to people. It’s a tricky one.”

In the future, alongside Bru-C, Ben hopes to link up Phlexx Records with YMCA Digital, introducing signed artists to community work, where they can make money while using their talents to help people. His dream of developing a successful community arts label would mean Ben can continue on his mission of opening doors. And I don't doubt that he will.

“Every young person deserves a chance and the same opportunities. We’ve come from situations where maybe we were that young person once, so we know what it’s like. We want to say thank you to all those people who make everything possible. To keep all these grafting artists fresh, it’s important that these institutions are highlighted. These people are artists in their spare time and that needs to be backed as much as their youth work.”