Helping young adults find their inner creativity

We recently met with Digital Amplifier, James Dellow from SoapBox, on our quest to find out more creative and wellbeing opportunities on offer for young adult carers in the borough. Run by local charity Covent Garden Dragon Hall Trust, SoapBox provides weekly live music events, gaming nights, radio projects, podcasting, music and video production, virtual reality and much more.

We interviewed James to find out how he arrived at doing what he does and his aspirations for the centre. Look out for more information about a taster event at SoapBox for young adults who have caring responsibilities as part of Carers Week 2022, 7-12 June.

SoapBox provides a state-of-the-art, open-access centre to give young people in Islington, up to 25 years old, the chance to harness their creativity and get hands-on with cutting-edge tech. 

At SoapBox, there’s no shortage of options and flexible spaces mean one room can serve as a dance studio or cafe, while other rooms will host games design and code clubs. They have received awards both locally and nationally and have worked with household names in music and the arts. 

Central to what they do is that ‘everyone has a right to be included and to have a voice for themselves’. In terms of their ethos, the space at SoapBox's centre and the variety of development opportunities that they can offer to young people, James Dellow says, "there’s no-one in the country that we are aware of who does what we do, in the way that we do it”.

It’s a place where art, dance, music and tech come together to offer a mind-blowing range of creative opportunities. Jamesstarted his career in his 20s promoting nightclubs and then as a DJ, travelling all over Europe. Amongst his favourite gigs was DJ’ing in front of a crowd outside the Colosseum in Rome. From there, however, he realised that he wanted to do something ‘with more substance behind it’ and decided that bringing music and opportunities to young people through youth work would be a more valuable contribution to society.  

With this in mind, James launched a career in youth work, setting up a radio station in East Riding of Yorkshire and today, he is responsible behind the scenes for the running of SoapBox, as ‘Digital Amplifier’ as he prefers to call his role at the centre.

Asking James about his future plans and ambitions for the youth centre, he said: “Here in Islington, we are neighbours to global tech names including Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Twitter. With tech predicted to supersede the contribution that financial services make to London’s economy, the challenge is how to connect young people into this world”. 

“Here at SoapBox we're well placed to support young people to immerse themselves in the creative opportunities that are provided by technology – to help them find an outlet for self-expression and to potentially build skills and locate pathways that can lead to future employment using tech. Our ambition is also to contribute to redressing the balance and diversity of those who have access to these opportunities here in London – for example, as things stand, only 17% of people who work in tech are female”.

'Levelling-up' employment opportunities is a big part of what SoapBox strives to do. They arranged 22 work placements for young people in 2021 (totalling over 3000 hours), including young people with learning disabilities, from black & minority ethnic backgrounds and young women. The offer for disabled and autistic young people has been transformative, with two young people getting paid work, four young people from Royal Mencap undertaking 300 work placements and a year-long music production placement project with Courtyard School for five young people.

During Carers Week 7-12 June 2022, Islington Carers Hub is going to partner with SoapBox  to offer a taster event for young adults who have caring responsibilities at their centre in Old Street. The idea is to provide a glimpse of what's on the menu at SoapBox, but also to provide an outlet for young adults who are carers, potentially on an ongoing basis. Look out for further information!  

Anyone up to 25 years is welcome to drop-in at SoapBox and to take part in one of their activities. For their current schedule of events, see their website: www.soapboxislington.org.uk.