Media for All
Media for All teaches young people from deprived parts of Lewisham about broadcasting, including how to make radio and television programmes. Through this experience many disadvantaged young people are able to get into education and employment. Director Alestir Waller believes Pilotlight has helped Media for All grow at a faster, but more sustainable pace and help more young people.Since Media for All started in 2002 the charity has grown rapidly but that growth also brought new challenges for the director of the charity, Alestir Waller.
In 2005 Alestir approached Pilotlight for help especially with developing a coherant funding and marketing strategy. Within two months of the first contact Pilotlight had pulled together a team which included a senior banker from Coutts, a Strategy Director from Shell and the Head of Financial Engineering at Barclays Capital.
The Pilotlighters acted as mentors to Alestir and helped her rewrite a stronger mission statement and develop a business plan for the charity. The impact was impressive and had immediate results. Alestir now plans Media for All’s work and manages its resources with its mission in mind and does not let herself get distracted from that. New staff have been recruited and the charity has expanded its operation into new areas such as internet training. They have also opened a popular youth bar and internet café and are making plans for the future.
The work which Pilotlight did in terms of a funding strategy is also beginning to take off with the charity able to submit larger and more ambitious bids. Already their annual income has risen from just under £80,000 to over £260,000. The number of students Media for All has helped has trebbled and there are plans to continue to increase the number of students and courses. They are about to move into a new building in London Bridge which has 7 studios, new post production rooms and has 4 floors in total.
Throughout the year Pilotlight continued to support Alestir and the charity. As a director of a new but rapidly expanding charity the guidance and expertise has been invaluable.
“Instead of just dreaming about having a production arm, instead of dreaming about a media programme we actually have that now”
“At first I felt the Pilotlighters were speaking a foreign language to me, I didn’t understand that I had to look at my students in unit price or look at capacity building, or look at how many students per classroom I could have. But it has been amazing to have that knowledge and to be able to implement that in our daily running.”
Alestir Waller, Director of Media for All, speaking at The Pilotlight Annual Party, September 2006