Decision details

PCC DN - Unity Radio (North West Media Ltd) Partnership

Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

The strategic aim of the VRUs communications plan is to reduce serious violence by increasing aspirations of young people in Greater Manchester and reassuring the public that the VRU is working together with partners and the community to address serious violence and its underlying causes.

The communications objectives are to:
• Raise awareness of how Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) is working together with partners and the community to address serious violence.
• Promote an alternative to violence by showcasing opportunities for people affected by violence and build aspirations for young people through campaigns and communications activity.
• Demonstrate the impact of the VRU in reducing serious violence, especially violence amongst young people.

The VRU intend to fund Unity Radio to deliver programmes with 10+ young people to raise awareness of serious violence and knife crime through a series of conversations led by young people (also some workshops in varying locations where young people are).

The partnership enables young people, aged 13-17, to discuss issues relating to serious violence that affect them in several workshops, before creating content to be aired live on Unity Radio’s NGY show.

Although there are already a significant number of young people who regularly listen to the show from across GM, we are keen to continue to encourage new listeners to ensure our messaging reaches as many of our audience as possible.

Decision:

The VRU is seeking to award £15,000 to Unity Radio to produce and air radio content specifically aimed at young people in Greater Manchester. We will continue to use radio as an additional way of reaching more young people and young people that can be hard to reach through our existing platforms – VRU website and social channels.

This is a continuation of two previous programmes of work which created high impact for young people on each programme and enabled key messaging around violence reduction, knife crime etc. to be shared with a significant number of our target audience.

The VRU previously awarded Unity Radio £74,848.00 in financial years 2022/23 & 2023/24. This new funding award of £15,000 in financial year 2024/25 will take the total funding awarded by the VRU to Unity Radio (North West Media Ltd) to £89,848.00

Unity will deliver a number of programmes engaging 8-12 participants between the ages of 13 -17 who will achieve an accredited Arts Award.

The participants will attend weekly evening workshops and be delivered by a highly skilled, motivated and experienced team who have already delivered the previous two phases of the programme.

The young people will apply their accredited learning at the workshops into a practical experience by designing, developing and delivering live FM radio shows that will be broadcast on Unity Radio´s FM and Digital platforms.

The shows will be edited and published on www.unityradio.fm for playback and promoted across social media including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Unity will continue work with EY3 Media (the VRU’s Content Creation provider) to maximise all opportunities for repurposing content.

The content of each radio show will contain features and discussion by the participants on the subject matter and related topics. The discussion will be between the young people and also include agency partners who can deliver workshops for the young people in exchange for their service being promoted on air.

Publication date: 29/10/2024

Date of decision: 24/10/2024