For the next three years the Whitworth will be exploring ways to ‘Energize’ Early Years practice thanks to funding from Youth Music.

The Whitworth has been chosen as one of 11 organisations nationwide to ‘energize’ early years creativity through Youth Music’s, Energizer Fund. Over the next three years, the fund will celebrate and champion creative practice with 2–4-year-olds, centring their voices, views, and lived experiences through co-design and participation.

Currently the Early Years sector is in crisis with an increase in the number of settings closing down, staff shortages and ongoing retention issues, as well as the de-prioritisation of creative education when it comes to policy and resource allocation. For too long, early years children have been sidelined and undervalued which threatens the development and well-being of young children and their families. This initiative puts these families in the driver’s seat, empowering them to lead the way.

At the Whitworth, we’ll be partnering with our longstanding partners, Afrocats, an award-winning charity supporting socially excluded communities across Greater Manchester. Together, over a ten week period we’ll be working with ten 2-4 year olds who are facing barriers to traditional early years provision. These barriers may include a lack of awareness about available services, shortage of free places in their area or complex legal or bureaucratic processes, to name a few. 

Through playful interventions and creative sessions led by professional artists in our gallery spaces, we’ll explore the transformative power of art and play on these families’ wellbeing as well as their on their development, particularly speech and language in both 2-4 year olds and their non-english speaking care-givers.

By listening to and amplifying the skills, creativity, and voices of these  children and their families, we aim to enhance their well-being, their development and  work towards enabling the gallery to be more accessible to their needs.

As we’re part of The University of Manchester, we integrate research into all that we do. This project benefits from a collaboration with our colleagues at LuCiD (The ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development), who will provide expert support over the three years. This partnership ensures that our work with families is informed by cutting-edge research, maximizing its impact on young children’s and their non-English speaking care-givers language development.

We believe all children, regardless of age, have the power to influence projects and organisations. No one is too young to be heard. We can’t wait to get started and will be posting regularly with updates.

Find out who the other ten ‘Energizer Fund organisations are here