This week on the blog, our Project Coordinator Marie shares her experience of our recent Mind Waves “Getting Started With Podcasting” course. Her words are below.
Last month I had the chance to work with an amazing group of young people from the Princes Trust in Glasgow, delivering a week long introduction to podcasting. The young people who came along to brought so much energy and creativity that I found myself on a learning journey too!
The participants worked in partnership with me, Princes Trust staff and each other to develop the personal, practical and technical skills to bring their creative ideas to life. We focussed on key areas such as storytelling, developing our audience avatar and dynamic interview skills, which are all key employability skills in the creative and digital industries. The group also became proficient in the use of Anchor podcasting software and using simple recording equipment to get their podcasts up and running.
One key thing that we learned was that we don’t need lots of fancy equipment to get started with podcasting. It is possible to record and publish your own podcast using only your smart phone, which surprised a lot of the group. Mind Waves always take an accessible, low tech approach to our podcasting training. For example, when background noise was an issue, we got creative and used some of the Princes Trust pop up tents for absolutely cost free sound proofing!!!
Although the young people were really motivated by gaining employability skills, what really shone through for me was how much the space to express themselves and build positive peer relationships impacted on their wellbeing – this is what we are all about at Mind Waves.
At our end of course showcase and celebration event, 19 year old J told staff that she hadn’t felt so happy in a long time and had looked forward to getting out of bed and out to the course each day. She felt that, through her podcast, had started something that she had the confidence to continue with on her own. She also wished the course would last a bit longer as she loved coming to see her course mates each day and was hoping to keep in touch with everyone.
The young people all finished the week with a completed podcast and some even published them and can be listened to now on Spotify! Their episodes ranged from psychology insights, sci-fi storytelling and political interviews to conspiracy theories, celeb gossip and true crime. Over the coming weeks we will be profiling the young people’s podcasts along with the stories behind them so stay tuned to the blog!
Congratulations to this absolute dream team, we are so proud of you all! Thanks to the fantastic team at Princes Trust Glasgow – we are absolutely delighted to be one of their delivery partners and look forward to working with more groups soon.
Click below to have a look at some of the brilliant podcast art work our participants came up with!
Mind Waves can offer a range of creative and digital workshops for community groups and more-than-profit organisations. As well as podcasting we also have expertise in creative writing, music-making and songwriting, animation, zine making and blogging! If you are interested in working in partnership with us simply contact marie@mindwavesnews.com to find out more.
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