25th February, 2014

PAPER CIC's artistic development programmes represent an engaging portfolio of sponsorship opportunities

PAPER CIC, a not-for-profit social enterprise limited by guarantee, is based in the beating heart of Bristol's city centre.

"At PAPER we use 'Professional Advice, Practical Education and Recognition' as tools to engaging people in self-development through the arts. This is why we believe that, by sharing our experiences and knowledge through skills based training, we can create opportunities for both individual and community development.

"In doing this we are helping people to release their potential and creating opportunities for individuals to gain an income through the arts. We are very different from a 'traditional' arts organisation as we value the fact that every person is an individual and that, when it comes to self-development, one size does not fit all. In June 2013 the number of long-term unemployed residents in Bristol was the highest it has been since 1997.

"Half of Bristol's JSA claimants have been unemployed for over six months and that number has been growing over the last two years. By providing skills and training for young people to enter employment or to become self employed, our project will improve the long-term job prospects of our target demographic.

"We currently work with the Job Centre and the Creative Employment Programme to deliver paid internships; we have committed to train over twenty-five interns from 2013-2016. In particular we work with 18-24 year olds that have been unemployed for a long period of time, to give them the confidence and necessary work experience to secure future employment in the creative sector.

"Our resource of city-wide training, talks, workshops and courses is open to the public. It is a user friendly online resource that helps the local community to source programs for self development. Our advice centre is open to the public and those that are not used to using computers can be shown how to use the resource and also book in for personal advice sessions if they feel they need more support and information.

"We rely heavily on volunteers and core funding to provide our services to the general public. We are looking for business sponsors to help us provide better equipment for our training courses and intern programs. Our city centre premises is very accessible but we also have an 'Out Reach' program to help encourage communities on the outskirts of the city or those that cannot easily access our building, to get involved in our skills programme.

"This building is our most expensive cost and any contribution to the maintenance and cost of running the building would be gratefully received".

Contact: Simone Kidner

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