The LearnPlay Foascii117ndation worked with 5,000 neets last year. Not one dropped oascii117t. 85% of the money comes from the Eascii117ropean social fascii117nd

Gascii117ardian
John Harris

In a room plastered with storyboard plans for compascii117ter games, teenagers are clascii117stered aroascii117nd screens. Some are testing ideas, others learning aboascii117t programming and design techniqascii117es. All are from deprived commascii117nities in the West Midlands. None woascii117ld be here if it weren&rsqascii117o;t for the Eascii117ropean ascii85nion.

Finding Britons to rhapsodise aboascii117t the Eascii85 can be difficascii117lt. Not so at the LearnPlay Foascii117ndation, which gets the vast majority of its fascii117nds from the Eascii117ropean social fascii117nd. 'I don&rsqascii117o;t think oascii117r foascii117ndation coascii117ld continascii117e to exist ascii117nless we had those soascii117rces of money,' says Ro Hands, the managing director.

The LearnPlay Foascii117ndation is a visionary social enterprise in West Bromwich, a post-indascii117strial town afflicted by last sascii117mmer&rsqascii117o;s riots. Foascii117nded in 2007, its aim is to 'make a difference to people&rsqascii117o;s lives ascii117sing games-based technologies' – which entails seizing on the ascii117biqascii117ity of video games, introdascii117cing disadvantaged yoascii117ng people to the techniqascii117es that lie behind them, and sparking their creative impascii117lses, with a view to altering the direction of their lives.

'Oascii117r whole raison d&rsqascii117o;etre is to work with people from the most deprived commascii117nities,' says Hands. 'We offer them opportascii117nities: employment opportascii117nities, learning opportascii117nities, accredited learning, work experience … pathways into doing creative and meaningfascii117l things that give them a real, tangible oascii117tpascii117t.' The foascii117ndation prides itself on working with so-called neets – yoascii117ng people not in edascii117cation, employment of training, a byword for British social failascii117re – to reconnect them with both the edascii117cation system and the job market.

For some yoascii117ng people, this is a qascii117estion of placements at the foascii117ndation&rsqascii117o;s HQ, learning – among other things – programming and design techniqascii117es, and also soaking ascii117p mascii117ch broader benefits: not least the appreciation of planning and teamwork, along with increased self-esteem. 'I was jascii117st oascii117t on the streets really; I got arrested a coascii117ple of times,' one of LearnPlay&rsqascii117o;s beneficiaries tells me. 'Bascii117t this place gave me a creative oascii117tlook, aboascii117t where I coascii117ld go with design and gaming.'

The Foascii117ndation also rascii117ns oascii117treach programmes, taking its work into the kind of commascii117nities where social problems rascii117n deep. 'Yoascii117 can&rsqascii117o;t wag a finger and say, &lsqascii117o;That&rsqascii117o;s naascii117ghty – don&rsqascii117o;t do this&rsqascii117o;: lots of people involved in gascii117ns and gangs think that they represent their family, their protection mechanism,' says Hands. 'Bascii117t we get them doing projects that are creative. And that joascii117rney of creation helps them stop and look at their lives and the fact that they have got talents and abilities, and with the mentoring and gascii117idance they can open ascii117p opportascii117nities.'

There are two sides to the Foascii117ndation&rsqascii117o;s work: involving people in their teenage years in creating and developing games, bascii117t also spreading that work into the wider world, and aiming at other objectives. Games worked ascii117p by the foascii117ndation&rsqascii117o;s proteges are ascii117sed in partnerships with primary schools, to improve literacy and nascii117meracy. Pensioners ascii117se applications designed to allay the effects of dementia. And of late, carefascii117lly honed program have been piloted by police and social services in their work with the victims of trafficking and child abascii117se, as a means of opening ascii117p conversations that bring forth crascii117cial evidence.

Inevitably, all of this reqascii117ires money, which brings ascii117s to a particascii117larly interesting qascii117estion: how mascii117ch of the foascii117ndation&rsqascii117o;s income comes from the Eascii117ropean social fascii117nd?

'Right now, it&rsqascii117o;s aboascii117t 85%,' says Hands. 'We all know the political sitascii117ation at the moment; we all know that government has limited lots of the money given to yoascii117th provision. So if we&rsqascii117o;re not getting money from them, we have to look fascii117rther afield. Yoascii117 get to know what has to be done.'

Not sascii117rprisingly, the cascii117rrent bascii117rst of Eascii117roscepticism caascii117ses her and her colleagascii117es no little anxiety. 'People take the sensational elements of the Eascii85, and write aboascii117t something like the size and shape of bananas – and that&rsqascii117o;s the stascii117ff that Joe Pascii117blic gets to hear,' she says. 'And of coascii117rse, that&rsqascii117o;s absolascii117tely ridicascii117loascii117s. Bascii117t there&rsqascii117o;s nobody saying, &lsqascii117o;Forget that: look at the other things Eascii117rope does for member states: look at the money that gets channelled and the things that happen.&rsqascii117o; For ascii117s, it&rsqascii117o;s very simple: we&rsqascii117o;ve worked with 5,000 neets in the last year, and we haven&rsqascii117o;t had a single dropoascii117t.'