Open Arms – Life Skills Sessions

We have some very exciting news at Pie!

With the huge success of our Open Arms sessions for young refugees and asylum seekers, we are overjoyed to announce that the programme will be holding monthly Life Skills sessions for these young people throughout the spring and summer on these dates:
– Friday 14 April 3pm-5pm
– Friday 12 May 3pm-5pm
– Friday 9 June 3pm-5pm
Young people can just turn up and all sessions are free to attend.

These sessions will include:
Creating a collaborative cookbook with Dylane Hubbard (a local foster carer), with recipes and stories from young people’s home countries, embellishing the links between nourishment and mental and physical wellbeing.

One-to-one asylum advice with a professional case worker from the Refugee Council. These will be offered as drop in 20 min appointments, prearrange or first come, first served. The advice service is for young people seeking asylum, up to 18 years old.

Opportunities for Life Skills Support and Individual Development with experienced Creative Practitioners Moa Norrsell and Daisy Kelly-Granger, such as help with homework, writing CVs, job applications, and more.

Pie’s Open Arms session runs every Friday from 5pm to 7:30pm at our Ramsgate HQ for young unaccompanied asylum seekers. The session has seen so many wonderful crafts, dances, music and collaboration. This has been a space for young people to relax, enjoy food inspired by their culture, connect with others and celebrating togetherness and openness.

With huge thanks to the support from NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group who have enabled these sessions to happen.

Danny

“I first came to Pie when I was 13 years old after someone who heard me rap in the park told me I should come along and show my talent. I remember that day very clearly still.

When I first came to Pie, I just got involved with the group who used to pass the mic around [Live Room]. There used to be 50+ MC’s and a DJ all passing the mic around. They had to really encourage me to do it the first time because I was shy, but I’m so glad they got me do it because my confidence lifted and that was the start! 

Afterwards, I got involved with Matt, one of Pie’s Creative Practitioners, and recorded songs and did music projects with him. 

When I was a little bit older, about 16/17, I helped the younger ones a couple times and got involved with song writing and running activities with them, alongside doing shows and recording my own music. I loved every moment! 

I am who I am today because of Pie! Because of the people that work there. If I had never gone that day when someone told me to, I wouldn’t be the artist that I’ve become. My confidence, my social skills, my abilities, even my music knowledge is all because of Pie. 

The best thing that I’ve learnt at Pie was to help others and be their biggest support if needed. 

Matt knows that I was really struggling in life at the time, so if someone else was struggling, I had to be there for them because that’s what Matt did for me. I have taken that with me later in life too.  

Pie means everything to me! If it wasn’t for them, goodness knows what I would have done and where I would be today. I appreciate all the team so much! 

Being involved with Pie has helped me be where I am today – I’ve got awesome job at Pilgrims Hospices and I’m still heavily involved with music. I’ve just released my Debut EP “Train Of Thought” It’s out on all digital stores and even on CD. After years of working on my craft ‘Poetic Justice’ is now ready to go get his dream! And it all started at Pie Factory Music!

The world I’m dreaming of for young people in the future, is that the world will be more together. These last few years have been awful for everybody, it’s divided the world. It’s like everyone is against each other instead of standing together and supporting one another. 

I want to see people smiling. Young and old. 

And I want the young ones to feel like they have a bright future ahead.

Stories like Danny’s bring home just how important the work we do to support, inspire and empower young people is. As we reflect on Pie’s 20th anniversary in 2022, we want to be here for the next 20 and beyond. If you like what we do, please consider donating to support our work.

Evan: Pie participant, Emerging Artist, Intern.

Evan joined Pie Factory Music when he was 13 years old. He was in a band at school and needed a space to rehearse. The band were excited to find out that Pie was free and aimed at young people, which at the time he describes as “practically unheard of in the area”.

Evan says: “I’ve always had a passion for playing and listening to music, but school didn’t provide me with any opportunities to be creative. It was too formal and structured. Pie Factory Music offered space to explore music in your own way, instead of it being part of a curriculum.”

After being at Pie for some time he started attending sessions on his own to play music with whoever was in the studio at the time. “I never thought I would have the confidence to do this” After a few years of attending our music sessions, we asked Evan if he wanted to be part of the Thanet Emerging Artists Programme, aimed at developing young musicians for a career in music. “This was a real turning point for me. I learnt so much on the programme, including how to set up and promote gigs, running live events and I had lots of opportunities to perform on stage. I’ve gone on to set up my own gigs and now work with a promotion agency.”

After finishing college, Evan joined our team as an intern and worked alongside us on our social media channels, making posters and designing adverts. Evan also helped to run the band room youth session. “I used to attend these workshops as a young teenager and I’m really proud to be able to give back to the charity in this way.” “I’ve always wanted a career in music, but it was being part of Pie Factory Music that put me on the right track to fulfil my ambition.”

Evan has gone on to study art at university and has become a popular musician, performing live solo and with his band. Evan performed at our 20th-anniversary event: The Big Gig on 3 December 2022 at Elsewhere Margate alongside emerging artists Debdepan and seasoned performer Falle Nioke.

Pie is 20 and it’s time to party! Come celebrate with us at Elsewhere Margate (21-22 The Centre, CT9 1RL) for our BIG GIG on Saturday 3 December from 7pm.

A night of live music with incredible musicians, including some of our young Emerging Artists – debdepan – alongside seasoned performers Falle Nioke and Pie alumni Evan Williams. Plus meet the young people who make us who we are.

We’ll then party the night away with DJs and 20th-birthday revelry. We’d love to see you there as we celebrate the achievements of the past 20 years and the beauty that is the East Kent music scene.

Tickets £10 / £5 (low-wage ticket price).

Please note there is a £1 booking fee

Book >

This is a 14+ years event.

Proceeds from the event will go to support our work.

In the last 20 years, we’ve

🟡Supported 50,000 young people in East Kent
Through innovative programmes that empower young people to influence their own lives positively.

⚫Held 167,346 sessions
Providing a safe space for young people to connect, grow, be inspired, be seen, be heard, and be themselves.

🟡Raised £5 million+
To create opportunities that lead to progression, employment, and better life chances, especially for those facing challenging life circumstances

We’re all about making a positive difference in young lives through youth work, music and creative arts, and pastoral support.

Pie is 20 this year. It has always been one of our top priorities as a youth charity to raise the voices of the young people around us.

Listening to young peoples hopes and dreams for their futures is extremely important and our belief is that every young person deserves the right to equal opportunity and that young people shape our future.

In August, a group of young people from Thanet and Dover took part in stop motion animation workshops with, artist Hannah Whittaker in which they learnt lots of different mediums, that can be used to make their final animation. We asked them to work with the idea: ‘The World We’re Dreaming Of’. They did a fantastic job thinking about their hopes and dreams for the future as inspiration to create some brilliant animations both together and individually.

Pie is turning 20 this year and we hope that by offering free creative workshops like these, it will help to give platforms to young people and help them to express their feelings in a safe environment without judgment. Using the arts to open up discussions into aspirations and dreams really helps to engage young people with visualising their futures.

It was brilliant watching the young people’s dreams come to life, they worked in a range of different materials to make different animations. Using Card to create people and faces, Bluetack to make characters, plasticine and various other craft bits and bobs. The young people got to learn how to use new software to create their animations. No dream, no matter how big or small, should be wasted, and even if dreams don’t become reality, they can lead to other things in the future. Gaining these skills helped young people work together in groups, connecting with one another through art and having passions in common.

Have a look at some of the brilliant animations made by the young people from this project:

Keep an eye out on our website for upcoming workshops and sessions: www.piefactorymusic.com/whats-on/

Thank you to Reconnect Kent for funding this project and helping young people connect with one another about their ambitions for the future.

Pie’s Emerging Artists launch the first single on their record label, Wantsum Music?

Debdepan (Deb-De-Pan), Kent’s rising female duo, release their genre-bending first song Darkest Hour, on 16 September — marking the second release of our emerging youth record label Wantsum Music?

Childhood friends Chelsea Tolhurst and Grace Bontoft established the band during the first lockdown in 2020, out of a growing need to express themselves and create the music they wanted to hear. Proficient guitarist and vocalist Chelsea and gifted bassist Grace are known for their quick-fire creativity, often writing a song in a day and performing it that same night.

Discovered by Pie Factory Music’s Emerging Artists and the Wantsum Music? collective, Debdepan’s ethereal, experimental sound and grassroots ethos chimed with the label, which launched in autumn 2021 to promote and support young homegrown talent.

“Lyric-wise Darkest Hour is open for interpretation; but the origin of the song is personal, it’s a reflection on an experience I had, that I needed to capture musically in order to move through it” says Chelsea.

“After modifying the BPM numerous times, Darkest Hour is intended to captivate listeners, to move them through one place emotionally to another – to journey to the quiet within the loud” adds Grace.

Following several successful live gigs throughout Kent (Elsewhere and The Albion Rooms in Margate, Tunbridge Wells Forum, Ramsgate Festival of Sound, Maidstone Fringe Festival) the duo have honed their progressive style, reminiscent of Warpaint, connecting closely to audiences. Chelsea and Grace are now partnering with Wantsum Music? to take their music to the next level and to even more people across Kent and beyond.

Listen and download Darkest Hour on all streaming platforms and Wantsum Music? Bandcamp at www.wantsummusic.bandcamp.com