Arc Theatre Company is using a new community crowdfunding scheme to support its vision of delivering internet and technology safety workshops to 1,200 children in Barking and Dagenham primary schools.
The local theatre company is hoping to raise £6,000 so the team can tour they’re powerful performance programme, Broadcast Junior, designed to improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable young people and prevent digital misuse and exposure to online abuse and exploitation.
Why it’s important
The concept for Broadcast Junior cam
Arc Theatre Company is using a new community crowdfunding scheme to support its vision of delivering internet and technology safety workshops to 1,200 children in Barking and Dagenham primary schools.
The local theatre company is hoping to raise £6,000 so the team can tour they’re powerful performance programme, Broadcast Junior, designed to improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable young people and prevent digital misuse and exposure to online abuse and exploitation.
Why it’s important
The concept for Broadcast Junior came about after discussions between Arc Theatre’s educational director, Natalie Smith, and Barking & Dagenham teachers and students highlighted the need for greater awareness of the dangers and realities surrounding online safety and technology misuse.
To back this up, 2013 research by ATVOD (widely publicised by the NSPCC) highlighted the increasingly worrying scale of underage exposure to unhealthy online activity and relationships. It revealed one in 35 of 6 to 11-year-olds in the UK are now going online; one in four children had experienced ‘something upsetting’ on a social networking site; and, one in three had been a victim of cyberbullying.
If Arc Theatre reaches its goal, Barking and Dagenham Council will matchfund the project as part of its new community crowdfunding scheme, Crowdfund Barking and Dagenham.
What’s Crowdfund Barking and Dagenham?
The Council has set aside £120,000 to matchfund projects that help get local people into employment, improve their health and wellbeing, encourage civic pride, or build community cohesion.
Eligible projects can pitch to receive up to 50% of their overall fundraising targets (capped at £10,000). Interested? To find out more about the crowdfunding scheme, visit https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/funds/lbbd-community, and pledge your support to Arc Theatre here.
