In my last hour of my 12 month apprenticeship with Beatfreeks, I’m writing about my experience.
October, November, December, January
My journey started with people. People I knew, people I didn’t know, people I was scared to know if I’m honest.
I met and bonded with the team over team away days and fun days, I travelled to different schools as well as colleges and universities, where I set up stalls to talk to even more new people. I also sat next to people at theatres in Stratford-Upon-Avon – watching shows such as Wendy and Peter that I’d never see myself watching before.
February
We won’t talk about this month, yet. This month deserves it’s own blog. Keep a look out for that chapter coming out at the end of this year and see why.
March, April, May
This is when I got to start working on events – from planning events to hosting them too. I then went on to plan workshops to teach music to young people from areas that don’t have safe spaces to unleash their creativity.
A turning point was when I helped plan an event called Be History. It led to me hosting the event aswell as performing on the night. I started to understand the logistics of event planning and how the event began on paper and quickly turned into the end of the event.
June, July, August, September
Projects started to creep up my back from Routes2Roots which I co-created and had been involved from the start of the 18 month campaign. Moving on to Ministry of Data, where we talked politics and how young people should and need to learn more about things that directly affect them. I also got to plan busking sets for Halmet at the RSC – before hosting the pre-show launch to Midsummers Nights Dream.
Woah.
What I’m trying to say is two things:
1. I have learnt and grown so much from working with this organisation, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’m super glad I had my first working experience in such an open, honest and supportive network of people.
2. This little journey within the big journey of my life started with people, people I knew and also people who I didn’t know, as conversations started to birth – ideas start to form, to bring events, to bring people together – to create change and grow as people. Leading on to long lasting projects that make a difference in the wider community – not only to myself.
Take a hold of what you can when you can, and don’t miss the opportunity – there is always something to learn, some way you can grow, or some way for you to input your ideas.
In my last 10 minutes of my 12 month apprenticeship with Beatfreeks, I’m finishing writing about my experience.
Thanks team it’s been a pleasure.
Written by Rochaé Stephens-Morrison.
Want to write a guest blog? The theme for October is ‘Self-Celebration/Black History Month’. Send your blog to bradley@beatfreeks.com, or contact for more information.