Great progress this month with See It To Be It, our pan-Cumbrian project to boost creative careers, really gaining momentum.
GROWING THE CACN TEAM: The response to our recruitment drive has been pretty huge. Over the last month we’ve interviewed over 25 creative freelancers interested in joining the team. The quantity and quality of applicants for both freelance roles was really significant and there were some tough decisions to be made. We’re pleased to welcome Iona St Joseph as our new Producer (Marketing and Admin) and Stuart Armstrong as our first Trainee Producer. We’re extremely grateful to everyone who applied and full of appreciation for their time and enthusiasm.
ADVISORY GROUP: We have also recruited nine young people (aged under 30) to form our See It To Be It Advisory Group. Under the guidance of Simon and Natalie from partner organisation The Knotted Project the group has now met twice and will continue to meet once a month for the next year. The group is: Ellie Armstrong (Carlisle); Imogen Barnfather (Cockermouth); Luke Bateman (Workington); Annie Brewer (Kendal); Naomi Frost (Ireby); Chloe Pennington (Whitehaven); Kyra Scott (Manchester / Kendal); Caleb Staps (Barrow); Xanthe Tilsey (nr Cockermouth).
We had 24 applicants and spoke to each one individually. Drawn from a range of creative and cultural backgrounds, the selected group are a thoughtful and impressive collective and we’re looking forward to working with them. Our Trainee, Stuart, will join the group, feeding back their ideas and views so that they are actively shaping See It To Be It.
MENTORING: Following an open call, we’ve now selected our first See It To Be It mentoring cohort. From 17 applicants, we’ve selected 6 young people, ranging from a game designer to a dance practitioner. We’ve matched them with appropriate mentors, and held induction meetings to ensure everyone has a shared understanding of the mentoring process. Each mentee will be supported through six monthly sessions with their mentor, and those conversations are already underway.
CAREERS EVENTS: We’ve made our first forays into the world of careers events. CACN Director Kate Parry and Jen Garrick (CEO at project partner Rosehill) attended Inspira’s Post 16 Careers Fair at Lakes College West Cumbria. They had a great time talking with a lot of young people about their creative interests, and were able to have longer chats with those looking for a creative pathway, signposting them to appropriate partner activity and / or the seeit.cacn.co.uk website. We learned a lot about what works, but it felt constructive to be there representing the sector as a whole, rather than just one tiny organisation among many very large ones. The response was really positive and it was clear that some students made a bee-line to us for a chat.
Tom Speight, CACN Producer, also joined Kate at an online careers event organised by project partner the Centre for Leadership Performance. Dream Placement is a six-month development programme for young Cumbrians, designed to provide workplace and leadership experience. Tom and Kate led a session for 50 participants at a recent development event – an interactive session exploring what creative careers look like in Cumbria, and offering some top tips for successful networking too.
TRAINING: Our first See It To Be It trainings took place on 19th November. There were two free online sessions on ‘How to Talk to Tiny People’ delivered by the Centre for Leadership Performance (Primary Business Partnership). Following the training there will be paid opportunities in West Cumbria for freelancers to deliver workshops from January 2026, helping to increase the understanding of creative careers among primary school pupils.
