Leyland Festival Radio project – updated 5/11/2015

• Introduction and aim – Leyland Festival Radio was a three-month project (April to June 2015). It culminated in three full days of hyper-local community radio broadcasting on 107.9 FM in June 2015, supporting Leyland Festival and enhancing community identity and pride in Leyland, Farington and Moss Side.

• Community involvement and enablement – The project directly involved up to 30 local people, across generations and backgrounds, giving them opportunities to develop the transferable skills (production, presenting, research, feature-making, editing, sales, marketing, communication, negotiation, people management, teamwork) necessary to make the broadcasts. The project offered both structured training (16 places on one-day Introduction to Community Radio course) and informal training, including peer-to-peer learning.

• Partnership and community support – Leyland Festival Radio worked with a wide range of individuals, organisations and businesses, including South Ribble Radio, Runshaw College and SLEAP (the local charity that provides emergency accommodation and assistance to young homeless people).

• Education, the arts and the community – The project offered real-world business and creative experience to Runshaw students, gave local artists opportunities to gain media experience and exposure for their work, provided abundant interview opportunities for local organisations and individuals and fostered community cohesion generally.

• Community steer – Keynotes of community radio are non-profit, access, participation and accountability to the community. The eventual aim is to bring permanent community radio to the Leyland/Farington/Moss Side area, based on those principles. A post-project evaluation period enabled those involved to reflect on experiences and start planning and managing the next phase for November 2015 – May 2016.