Do you know a young person who wants something exciting to do?
Two national charities, vInspired (@vInspired) and Retail Trust (@RetailTrust) are rallying the troops to fill an empty shop in Leeds city centre and breathe new life back into a city centre space. Isla Brown (@IAmIslaB) talks about how you can be involved.
I’ve just come on board to deliver the genuinely amazing Retail Ready People project in Leeds- a partnership between vInspired, Retail Trust and the wonderfully motivational Dan Thompson of Empty Shops Network and #riotcleanup fame.
Retail Ready People, or RRP (geddit?), is a 14 week skills development and volunteering programme for 16-25 year olds which provides top notch training and support to develop key business and retail skills and then put these skills into action to transform an empty shop in the city centre into a creative pop-up retail space.
It’s exciting and it’s free.
We let the young volunteers manage all aspects of the shop- from concept development to product selection, marketing, PR, visual merchandising and day-to-day management. It’s great for anyone interested in retail, business or city/community regeneration. We’re not looking for experts; we want to help our young volunteers realise their potential and experience something new.
It’s definitely a great time to run something like this in Leeds- our high street and city centre is in a state of flux and change, hopefully for the better but who knows yet? It’s a little like unchartered territory but that’s the exciting thing. I hope this project gets young people of Leeds thinking about their city in a different way- what do we want it to look like? How can we make it better?
We want to encourage the volunteers to come up with something new and innovative; to fill a gap in the high street not repeat something that already exists. That’s really important.
Dan (@artistsmakers) is a pro at this kind of fresh-thinking and, alongside our retail trainer, will support the volunteers to develop their ideas.
It’s also about creating a relationship of trust between young people and the local retail sector and starting those conversations. The pop-up shop is only open for a month but afterwards we continue to work with the young people to provide advice and support on job opportunities and next steps.
So if you are interested in the programme or know anybody who is then move quickly!
Due to the continued interest in RRP in Leeds, we’ve just extended the deadline to allow interested volunteers to apply. Applications will remain open until Thursday 7th March.
Find out more here: at the Vinspired website
Follow us on Twitter: @vinspired @retailtrust #retailready
vInspired is an independent charity dedicated to helping young people to improve their skills, confidence and employability by giving them opportunities to do good things through volunteering and social action. Retail Trust is the only charity looking after the needs of the 3 million people working in retail.
Isla Brown runs events, festivals and projects and is based at Duke Studios, Munro House. @IAmIslaB