Earlyarts - your children are amazing

• Good connections with local stakeholders from across the arts, cultural and early years sectors, including Local Authorities’ Early Years, Family Support or Playworker teams within Childrens Services.

• Adequate internal capacity to take on the programming, marketing, booking, and admin related to running four Earlyarts Professional Development Days (PDDs) per year.

• Willingness to work as part of a consortium (called Earlyarts Hubs) of arts, cultural and early years providers where more impact can be demonstrated by working together than working alone.

• Commitment to the values and principles of Earlyarts, the national co-operative structure, and supporting the growth programme. This will include recruitment of new Earlyarts members from their stakeholders, sign-posting new case study and research material to help populate the Earlyarts resource bank, attending one Pathfinder Partners network meeting per year, and being keen advocates for the network and its principles in all PR opportunities

• Complementary geographic spread, preferably covering an area not catered for through Earlyarts provision, or complementing existing Pathfinder provision in ways that bring additional value.

• Available funding is not a pre-requisite as the model is based on a ‘social franchise’, where resources are brought together for a much greater effect than they would achieve in isolation. As such, it is your social capital that we value as your contribution to the network, i.e. your resources, trust and connections within your communities. Therefore, you will need to be able to assign around 8 days per year of human resources and establish an Earlyarts function within your own agency. Other resources such as host venues or catering facilities are welcome but not essential as the key element is your time and willingness to share your connections whilst benefitting from the connections and resources across the network as a whole, plus a significant central services contribution from the core team. The four PDDs currently cost £2000 per year to run which is reimbursed to you through our earned income and fund raising.

• Completion of a short questionnaire each quarter which enables us to value your contribution and assess our impact and Social Return on Investment (SROI) as a network.

• Willingness to commit to a three year Pathfinder agreement to enable us to build a sustainable network by 2012, with relevant early exit clauses should they be required.

• Arts, Cultural and Early Years organisations already running creative learning programmes that can be complemented through a joint approach are more than welcome to apply.

 

Our partnership offer is this:

Pathfinders have three core responsibilities:

1. Programming and co-ordinating four Professional Development Days per year, based on the Earlyarts model, in partnership with your local Earlyarts Hub and in response to local need.

2. Recruiting new Earlyarts members through your connections with stakeholders from arts, cultural and early years sectors, Local Authorities and Childrens Services teams.

3. Attending a national network training day for all Pathfinder Partners to share to develop ideas for your PDD programmes, build your profile as Earlyarts Leaders in your region, and benefit from the pooling of expertise from all Pathfinders to help provide what really works for your target audience.

 

In return, Earlyarts provides:

• FREE Earlyarts subscription for the host Pathfinder with all the benefits of regular membership (see below)

• £100,000 worth of support in marketing, IT, social media, research, web based resources, case study collation, and booking administration from our core team

• Up to £500 budget per PDD to cover costs of facilitators, venue & refreshments

• Lead role influencing shape of workforce and connecting key players across sectors

• Opportunity to make a big difference to the quality of creative support for all children in your area

• Access to a national distribution network and online resource bank for exposure of your own projects and research

• Local ownership of CPD hubs and association with a renowned network

• Use of Earlyarts distribution network (5,500 through the ebulletin and 330,000 though the web site) for your local or regional news, activities, events, training, etc.

• Optional support service by Earlyarts for your artists database

• Free up resources for own projects by assigning newsletters, ebulletins, etc. to Earlyarts

• Central Earlyarts management of PPD bookings, online registrations, subscriptions, conferences, resources and artists database processes – no admin for you!

• Added value to your funded projects

 

Benefits for annual subscribers includes access to:

• Professional Development Days (4 per year) - good practice case studies, connecting into national network, policy and curriculum reviews, training in creative skills and pedagogies;

• Resource Bank – 1000s articles, videos and case studies on the impacts of arts and culture in early years;

• E-bulletin (6 per year) - news, projects, policy initiatives, conferences, training, latest research;

• Advertising – exposure through Ebulletin (5500) and Newsflash (330,000);

• Artists Database featuring early years artists and arts or cultural organisations;

• Brief Builder - project planning, review and evaluation toolkit;

• Bookshop (in development) – latest publications, toolkits and practical learning materials;

• Conference Series (ticket reductions) – higher level thinking around current provision;

• International Exchange Programme (priority notice) with partners, Earlyarts USA, and Small Size network.

 

The national expansion of Earlyarts intends to provide access for several more arts, cultural and early years professionals to a depth of professional development that is not otherwise available through traditional training programmes. It will support the sectors in developing an understanding of the theories, policies and pedagogies which can help them collaborate with each other to achieve a more meaningful engagement with very young children and families. It will help strengthen our business case in terms of extending the reach of our organisations and providing a route for children into engagement with arts and cultural provision in the longer term, having first ignited the spark that captures their imaginations. Earlyarts will support the longer term embedding of collaborative creative practice, helping to shift the culture away from bolt-on interventions, leading to improved and sustainable practice.

Earlyarts is everybody’s network, and we want to use this opportunity to meet the challenges of the current financial climate by developing a social enterprise business model which enables Earlyarts to become entirely self-financing by 2012. We think this approach is much more sustainable because it ensures that Earlyarts as a network does not put itself in competition with its own members for public funding. Together, we can share our knowledge, strengthen our connections, support our sectors and make this work. More detail on how Earlyarts supports key national policies (pending review for obvious reasons) and Earlyarts Testimonials from our lovely participants here.

Please feel free to send us your expression of interest, showing how you fulfil the criteria, in no more than 4 sides of A4, to be received by Wednesday 8th September 2010. Feel free to attach any relevant documentation to back up your application. Further information can be found in the Pathfinder FAQs if you have any queries.

All the very best and we look forward to hearing from you.

Ruth Churchill Dower

Earlyarts Director