Britain’s most famous front door has been unlocked to young people as part of Olympic legacy project somewhereto_.  10 young people looking for somewhere to free run, perform spoken word and practice boxing were recently given free rein to use Number 10 Downing Street as a space to showcase their passions.

The incredible day was captured by somewhereto_’s cameras.  Callum Harris (17) and Jack Curtis (20) from Accrington Stanley alongside Chima Akenzua (22) and Karol Michta (17) from London leaped over the grand staircase, past faces of Prime Ministers new and old, before back flipping through the hallway out to the garden.  Boxers Wesley Washington (17) and Ryan Hutchings (16) from Royston made the most of the Pillared State Drawing Room’s open space, while Rubix Collective – Bridget Minamore (19), Deanna Rodger (22), Sean Mahoney (23) and Ayesha Badat (17) from London – bounced inspiring words across the State Dining Room.  Catch a glimpse of the action for yourself by visiting www.youtube.com/somewheretochannel

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “somewhereto__ is a fantastic initiative to help young people find the space they need to develop their passions.  This is a great example of the Big Society – connecting businesses that have space they can spare with people in their community who have a dream they can use it for.

“If 10 Downing Street can open its doors to something as adventurous as free running I hope it will inspire other people to see what their building could be used for.”

Wesley said: “My local boxing club [Welwyn Garden City Boxing Club] is closing down so I got in touch with somewhereto_ to find me the space to carry on practicing.  The opportunity to train at Number 10 means so much to me and everyone at my club – hopefully with the help of somewhereto_ we’ll stay together as a club and keeping boxing in our lives.”

Sam Conniff, Chairman at Livity said: “The opening of the most famous door in Britain by the Prime Minister really captures the essence of somewhereto_, where imagination and young people’s passions can become the keys to open spaces and unlock potential.”

Funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to help build a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games, somewhereto_ is a nationwide project to help young people find the space they need to do the things they love within sport, culture and the arts.  somewhereto_ is run by Livity, a youth engagement agency, in partnership with Channel 4 Education.

In 1995 the office I worked in had one Internet connection, and it was on my computer! I held the key to the World Wide Web and I used it to render my managers into pointing cave dwellers as early websites took an hour to load before their ever-widening eyes.

Dial up’s reassuring buzzes and clicks gave way to the mystery and expense of ISDN, which gave way to the White Elephant of WAP. T1 was for show offs, The Mobile Internet transformed the pub quiz, and now even my mum complains about her Broadband upload speed.

Every evolution giving me more freedom, more control and more access, and better than anything else, with every step towards Internet maturity, we move further away from ‘The Interwebs’ being an acceptable term for adult conversation.

I‘ve got 36 pages open in Chrome as I type this, I’m selling, buying, saving, typing, sharing, talking and stalking all at once… I’m in charge of my finances, independent, in control and in touch with my family and friends around the world,

I’m not quite living the dream Tim Berners Lee had when he spoke about the renaissance of creativity the Internet could cause, but I am hoping to get the bid I want on eBay.

From the over played role of Social Media in Iran and Egypt to the under valued role of Facebook keeping loved ones in touch  across the world… The Internet man… how did I ever live without it?

Until now… when HSBC went and ruined it.

After weeks of simply closing the tiresome pop up warning box, suddenly I could no longer access my very handy HSBC dashboard of accounts, where I pay my rent, council tax, bills and all the dull stuff I used to ignore and get into trouble for.

The friendly and secure, easy to use interface, where I pay friends who’ve bought tickets, organise holidays, chip in for presents and all the stuff I used to forget all the time. (Sorry again friends!)

The sacred safe place where I save for my wedding, my future and avoid being overdrawn (much) and overcharged (a lot).

Internet banking saved me from weekly, daily and monthly Financial Mismanagement and an inbred fear of envelopes with windows and rescued me from years of fines, charges, and the very thought of my finances incurring an eye swivelling a self induced temporary lobotomy.

But now, like the banking strand of Hn51, HSBC’s contribution to the evolution of the Internet and the gift of independence it gave my life is…

The HSBC Key of Grief and Shame.

The HSBC Key of Grief and Shame promises to improve my security, but it’s less convincing than a Ben10 spy toy that came free with a Happy Meal

The HSBC Key of Grief and Shame creepily sidles up to me, telling me that it’s improving my life, whist it stabs me in the back, robbing precious time, and returning the internet to a chore that I have to remember to take with me.

The HSBC Key of Grief and Shame sucks up pretending to be my friend, but really it keeps secrets and won’t let me log on with just my carefully remembered codes, without the Key of Grief and Shame’s oh so important fished out of it’s ear pass words it makes up every time and whispers sneakily, and too quickly, every time I want to see my balance, I can’t do a thing.

The HSBC key of Grief and Shame looks weaker than a Water Biscuit that’s been through cold turkey, so much so I can’t trust the ‘key ring fob’ hang tag that gestures at me, this Christmas Cracker toy would never last a day in my laptop case.

Which means the HSBC Key of Grief and Shame is always at home when I need it at work, or always at work, when I really, really need it at home… Like. Right. Now!

The HSBC Key of Grief and Shame holds it’s petty little codes on it’s smug little screen for just the right amount of time, which for me is mainly just the wrong time to allow for getting distracted by more interesting matters to have to begin again with it’s selfish little buttons that I’d rather hammer into molecules than ‘hold down firmly’, it’s the least I can do not to throttle the tiny bastard every time I just want to pay the gas bill.

The HSBC Key of Grief and Shame is my sworn enemy, but I am at its mercy.

I tried a peaceful protest by ignoring it, but the rent was due, I needed to know if the Standing Orders had gone through and I wanted to make a transfer to my mum.

I tried to make a dirty protest, but in HSBC Brixton’s High St branch, no one flinches at that kind of behaviour.

Like an inhabitant of an occupied territory I have had to accept the totalitarian regime that now presides over me, I know it’s an extreme analogy, I know it probably makes no sense, I know I’d be the first to complain if someone did rob my account, I know I could have gone to work and got it in the time it’s taken me to write this, or even just rung the call centre…

But if there’s anyone out there who feels similarly robbed of their freedom, and wants’ to join the resistance, then meet me tonight, after dark, just don’t bring any codes…

Update…

We are not alone, links received, in support, the resistance is growing!

Below are a few links to articles and groups of dissatisfied customers:

http://www.moneytoolkit.com/2011/08/hsbc-secure-key-fail/

http://thefinanser.co.uk/fsclub/2011/08/hsbc-stumble-with-secure-key.html

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2025682/HSBC-customers-complain-extra-security-calculator-key-online-banking.html

http://money-watch.co.uk/8224/hsbc-secure-key

http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/hsbc

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scrap-the-HSBC-Secure-Key/220553231298352

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=329622

In the words of Live Magazines young editors:

We say “they the government do not understand us”. The government say, “we as a generation have lost interest”. To show we care and want to make a change, we’ve taken their promises and made it our own. This video was made last year, but this feels like the best time to release it.

The idea for the film was originally conceived with a group of teenagers from south London in 2006 after David Cameron made his hug a hoodie speech during a saturday film club that Livity ran for some of the young people involved in Live Magazine who’d made the brilliant and satirical short film, Tissue Paper Crew T.P.C. which was shown at the BFI.

The update of There is More Than Unites Us was essentially a screen test made with the generous support of DocuMovie, whilst it was never fully realised, recently it felt like it was worth sharing.

Both films say a lot about the power of Livity and Live Magazine and the methodology of Co Creation, empowering young people to have the tools and confidence to express their voice.

Both films say a lot about the hundreds of talented, inspirational, positive young people who come through Livity’s doors every month, and go on to make a positive mark on the world.

WWW.Live-magazine.co.uk

#voiceofYOUTH

WWW.livity.co.uk

Social entrepreneurs need business insiders behind them to achieve real change, argues Sam Conniff

Sam Conniff

Guardian Professional, Monday 31 January 2011 10.30 GMT

Article history

Social intrapreneurs drive social change from within a private sector organisation, says Livity’s co-founder Sam Conniff Photograph:

I am a shameless buzzword aggregator, touting whatever word of the week I can call my own, so “social intrapreneur” chimed with me for many reasons.

For the sake of this blog post, I define social intrapreneur as “an entrepreneurial individual, within a private company, driving the business towards making social impact while achieving it’s business objectives”.

It’s important to distinguish a social intrapreneur from the CSR team, the sustainability lead, the community team, and the well-meaning who enjoy organising get well cards from the office.

Social intrapreneurs create lasting social change, they believe in the power and purpose of the company they work for and they believe you can do well and do good whilst in business.

It’s my personal opinion, that the right social intrapreneurs, in the right organisations, pulling the right levers, can affect far greater change than most social entrepreneurs can dream of; but I don’t think they need to work together in order to do so.

I asked Liam Black, who used to run Fifteen and FRC, and whose new company Wavelength connects brands including Rolls Royce and Delloitte with dynamic social enterprises such as Sidekick Studios andMyBnk, what he thought of social intrapreneurs. He wasn’t overjoyed at the new term. “Social intrapreneur? Oh great, just what the world needs, another unnecessary term to define what we do. Actually, I have met a lot of poor people recently and funnily enough, exactly what they said they needed is another hard to understand phrase.”

He went on. “It’s about collaboration, you need someone on the inside, who’s got the access to money and authority that will give someone on the outside credibility and the narrative. Have you got a daft phrase for that?” And then he softened and named his top candidate for the monicker, “the next generation at some of the world’s biggest firms are very exciting, we’re seeing the best of them at Wavelength, guys like James [Elias] at Google are the future.”

James Elias is head of business marketing at Google UK. He had the vision, imagination and balls to create a Google programme transforming young offenders with natural business talents into legitimate entrepreneurs.

Elias said: “Social intrapreneurs potentially deliver a lot more social impact, at greater scale, but their challenge is culture within a major corporate. Partnering with social entrepreneurs creates opportunity for proof of concept that can translate into a corporate environment. Social entrepreneurs are closer to the front line, more nimble and are plugged into social enterprise in a way corporates aren’t.

“Everyone at Google is encouraged to have ideas, and when you do you’re encouraged to find the right people to make them work. Most people at Google believe that it really is a company changing the world, and that the core of the business, providing access to public data, is a good thing.”

But Google is one thing, they have publicly promised to “do no evil”. What about the multinationals more often written off as faceless profit machines? It’s easy to criticise the likes of Unilever for their global dominance, so I spoke to Geoff McDonald, global vice president of human resources at Unilever.

McDonald said: “how are we going to make a social impact, money, grow business, and still be here in 100 years? Social change has to start from a profit model if it’s going to make a lasting difference. I call it capitalism with care. Social intrapreneurs have by far the greatest chance to make a social impact at scale, but it has to be in partnership with social entrepreneurs.

“I truly believe it’s the big boys that will change the world, not governments or churches but P&G, Nestle and us. But it must be done in partnership with social enterprises and others to really make the greatest social impact.

“But we need to move away from CSR and make it core to the business. To effect change within a multinational you need to create a moral purpose, If you can create a culture around that moral purpose, more social intrapreneurs will occur.”

Brilliant social intrapreneurs are everywhere, at every level. When Livity pitched an idea to O2, to launch a social enterprise package and create mainstream awareness of social enterprise, it was a big ask. Luckily, the decision maker, responsible for SMEs was the awe inspiring Simon Devonshire, co-founder of One Water, who seized the idea of bringing social enterprise and the private sector together and is now leveraging the channels O2 has to grow the social enterprise sector in the UK.

I think O2′s support for social enterprise will be a game changing moment for big business and social enterprise in the UK, and I’m proud to have had a role in it. Sadly however, luck played the greater part. I had no idea of Devonshire’s background when I approached O2 with the idea. I aimed for the board and was directed to Devonshire from within.

Social intrapreneurs might just be yet another term, but for social change I suspect it’s a very important one. Social enterprises and social intrapreneurs need to seek each other out, using areas of mutual interest as their compass.

Currently there is no directory of social intrapreneurs at UK firms, although it might not be a bad idea to create one (nudge, nudge Guardian). For now you have to bang on doors, make yourself known, do your research and generally aim as high up in an organisation as you can, to have a chance of coming back down in the right direction.

For a more theoretical and thoughtful (and slightly smug) perspective the field guide to Social Intrapreneurs is an interesting read that defines them as:

“Someone who works inside major corporations or organisations to develop and promote practical solutions to social or environmental challenges where progress is currently stalled by market failures.
Someone who applies the principles of social entrepreneurship inside a major organisation. One characterised by an ‘insider-outsider’ mindset and approach.”

The Social Intrapreneur, a field guide for corporate changemakers available to download from http://www.sustainability.com. The guide contains case studies and contacts. It is produced by the Skoll Foundation and others. The same publication does however also use the phrase “Torpedoing Beavers” without the slightest sense of irony, a wry smile or a even a snort, and frankly if you’re going to take on the challenge of working with big business, to convince them to become more serious about achieving social aims, you’re going to need more of a sense of humour than that.

Sam Conniff is the co-founder of Livity - a socially responsible youth communications agency

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up to the social enterprise network.

Similarly to young people in London, where it’s recently reported 1 in 4 adults will cross the road, when they see a ‘youth’, the ongoing irresponsible media portrayal of Snowmanz presents an unfair picture of danger and disadvantage,  but just like 99.9% of young people, the Snowmanz, were safe.

Whether it’s Snowmanz or the man dem, fear breeds fear just as trust breeds trust.

Snowmanz, and young people, need opportunity and somewhere to do something positive on the whole they’re causing no harm, having a laugh and deserve a chance to do something useful… before they melt.

S’no wasteman business. Give snowmanz a chance.

"A Snowmanz and his Staffies" - Kennnington

"Slippin' literally" - Stockwell / Oval borders

"Snowmanz blazin' in Brixton" - Brixton

"Oy Mysize!" - Peckham Rye

"Big, Buff Tings" - Peckham Park

"Snowmanz in a madness" - East Dulwich

"The endz is nigh" - Vauxhall

"Snowmanz got Snowmurked" - Camberwell

"Snowmanz pee'd himself" - Kennington

"Snowmanz losing they're heads out here" - Peckham

BREAKING SNOWMANZ NEWS > > >

This just in, from Simon Fullerton, sent to him from East Belfast…

Snow Surrender

Health is one of those topics that people feel very strongly about, it causes debate, it causes upset, and it’s been known to cause people to throw wine over their fellow guests.

While I reluctantly concede that the NHS is not the world leader it was, and there are arguments for competitive advantage and free market efficiencies, at the same time I can’t help feeling that there are some things we shouldn’t profit from.

I accept that the NHS does need a shot in the arm. And, there seems to be a prescription on offer that says social enterprise is the panacea to our sick system, but I haven’t met the doctor or social entrepreneur yet who’ll second that diagnoses. We need some radical models to inspire and excite our thinking and not blind belief and hope, even if it is social enterprise or right to request shaped.

Last month a visit to rural Bangladesh totally revolutionised my understanding of how a hospital can be run. The Grameen Eye Hospitalin Bogra is a place of such streamlined efficiency the German Rolls Royce engineer I was visiting with nearly cried.

Overcrowded waiting rooms... Grameen Style.

Initially patients are given an eye test, after which they are efficiently channelled into further testing and treatment. The ultra effective squeaky clean hospital flows the patients seamlessly on their journey to the operating theatre, where three surgeons work simultaneously.

The chief medical officer, Dr Nabi, who did the party I was travelling with the massive honour of doubling as our guide, is the fastest in the hospital, averaging six minutes, per eye, per operation.

The unassuming and ever so impressive Dr Nabi

This eye bogglingly fast turnaround means he personally completes more than 200 operations each month, motivating his team to match him, achieving an overall 30 to 40 eye operations a day across the hospital. And before you worry about efficiency compromising effectiveness, 88% of post-op patients have good vision, 7% higher than World Health Organization average.

Added to which, the hospital is stocked with the best equipment from Germany, UK and around the world.

And as if that wasn’t good enough, the team there are pioneering new approaches to tackling health care issues that hold back millions of people worldwide.

Tarek Rabah from Astra Zeneca was as visibly impressed as the rest of us

The hospital is part of Grameen, the visionary social business established by professor Mohammed Yunus. Inspired by the Arvindh Eye Hospitals in India, Grameen Eye Hospital is run on a cost subsidy basis, 50% of the patients pay a subsidised amount, 40% pay a premium amount and 10% are treated free. The patients who can afford, and want to pay for such a great service, subsidise the patients who can’t.

There is a simple questionnaire that patients fill out to assess how much they must pay. This seems as if it should be open to abuse but in fact it works so well that in it’s third year, the hospital is using it’s considerable profits to build a whole new floor for training.

The chief medical officer, Dr Nabi, smiled brilliantly and broadly when he said: “We show the rich no mercy”.

"We show the rich no mercy" they said, ever so welcomingly...

And just when you thought the efficiency drive couldn’t get any more efficient, we meet the Grameen Eye Hospital gardener, who’s salary is paid for by the sales of the vegetable’s grown in the hospital grounds.

The key to the success of the model is that Grameen delivers high quality care at an affordable cost in high volume, and it has highly trained technicians doing most of the examination and preparation work so that the ophthalmologists can focus on the operations.

Grameen’s focus on social business to create lasting sustainable solutions is inspiring in every area it is applied, but the hospital stopped everyone I was visiting with in their tracks, and I was with some critical, high level big brains.

Crystal clear charging for all to see

The question in my mind was what will this awesomeness now inspire elsewhere around the world, and is there medicine in this model for our own poorly NHS?

We need a dose of something fairly radical, and this model strikes me as more interesting than ending up with credit card machines on the sides of hospital beds. Looking for lessons as to how this seeming genius could be applied back home, I looked to the mission statement.

“Grameen Healthcare will design and develop a bottom up healthcare infrastructure that can take lessons from successful efforts around the world and improve upon them to deliver the highest quality Healthcare, in an efficient and sustainable manner, primarily to the poorest of the poor but also to the non poor, who may pay a little more than the target population.”

And in that simple line, I found all the lessons I needed, we need to share knowledge, we need to help the most needy and we need to pay for it from existing resource.

I suspect it’s best not to listen to those who sell social enterprise snake oil as a cure for everything, but there are some lessons out there to be learnt.

If the Grameen Eye Hospital teaches us anything, it shows that time and again, all around the world, and on your doorstep, we consistently know what the most pressing problems are, we often do know what the solutions are, or someone does, and when we think about it differently and don’t rely on government or charity, we do have, or can make, the resources to make the solutions work.

A reminder of Grameen's Nobel Prize is never far away

This is the challenge to all social entrepreneurs everywhere, we know the problems, someone knows the solutions, the resource is out there … make it happen.

Sam Conniff is the co-founder of Livity – a socially responsible youth communications agency

This post first appeared at The Guardians Social Enterprise Network

This post was republished (proudly) at www.muhammadyunus.org

Grameen means ‘village’, and yesterday, we visited one of thousands of villages transformed by Grameen Bank.

My prejudices of a ‘poor’ village’ in rural Bangladesh, meant that no matter how well briefed I was, an air ‘poverty tourism’ accompanied me into the village,

Until a group of women ‘borrowers’ shattered my preconceptions and taught me a lesson in entrepreneurship that I will never stop learning from, for as long as I live.

These women are not just borrowers, but also members, shareholders and ultimate owners of Grameen bank.

Of a profitable multi-million dollar bank, the borrowers own 96.65% of shares and occupy 9 of the 13 seats on the board.

We joined a weekly ‘centre meeting’ where ideas are explored, proposals presented, deals done, and loans repaid, with a 98% successful repayment rate.

But, it’s the human transaction taking place that is more significant than money. Women amass interest on their dignity deposit. Ideas and experience are traded across the earth floor. Women make withdrawals of confidence, pride and energy to spend on their homes, families and businesses.

Grameen has over 8 million borrowers (meaning more than 8 million families feel the benefit) through an infrastructure of two and a half thousand local Branches, one hundred and forty seven thousand Centres and over a million Groups.

Grameen Bank has branches in 80,000 villages covering 90% of Bangladesh.

Grameen Bank is big business.

Although massive, complex and brilliant, the whole idea seems to be based on very simple principles, give someone trust and they can become trusted, give someone responsibility and they can become responsible.

Beyond even that, Grameen Bank believe just because someone is ‘poor’ it does not mean they don’t have the same natural talents as other people.

A little opportunity, in the shape of a small cash loan, can unlock entrepreneurial potential in people that changes lives and society.

This simple belief, some discipline in meetings (that includes a fair bit of saluting and clapping) and agreeing to a set of 16 holistic banking principles that go way beyond what you’d find on the wall in Brixton HSBC, have created a banking system that empowers it’s customers, rather than imprisons them.

The 16 principles borrowers agree to uphold range from family planning, to collective investments to educating their children.

Although many of the women we met are still illiterate, and painfully ashamed of it, their success will be their legacy, all the women had children who could read.

And now Grameen Bank has launched higher education loans, in 2010 there are 18,000 students who have taken up loans and 8,000 more expected each year.

It’s sadly true that Bangladesh not moved forward in poverty stakes since Grameen Bank launched, but there are many millions of individuals who have.

This lady is my new business mentor (sorry Liam!!) she was suspicious of Grameen Bank, but she lived in total poverty, and eventually took out a 5,000 Taka loan.

In a year she used it to grow a vegetable patch, paid back the full loan and had 5,000 Taka profit to show for it.

She used the profit, and another loan, and bought a cow, earning 50 Taka’s per unit of milk it gave, paying pack the loan.

With profit and another loan she bought another cow, and paid back another loan.

In two years her profits reached 30,000 Taka by selling milk, calves and eventually the cow itself, which she combined with another Grameen Loan and built a barn and started a chicken farm.

She now has three chicken farms, and is planning two more, has combined her profits and is now able to get a 260,000 Taka loan and is on the verge of a chicken farm empire!

She was laughing out loud as she told me her incredible story, and I laughed too, as one entrepreneur to another, enjoying her unequivocal, sound and sustainable business success.

Grameen Bank attracts criticism, is defensive about it’s figures, and there are certainly flaws, but this is not a religion or a piece of magic, it is a social business, and every business has flaws.

But to describe Grameen as just a business, or just a bank, doesn’t to justice to the sophisticated vision that lies behind it. Grameen is a direct intervention in people’s everyday lives but also a sustained kick-start to society across multiple generations.

We came here to learn, and we have, but Grameen Bank is a lesson to the whole world.

Grameen Bank and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and are the first and only business ever to receive that accolade.

Livity are in Bangladesh and visiting Grameen as part of Wavelength, along with some brilliant minds and fantastic people from a range of other organizations who want to learn about social innovation including Google, Rolls Royce, Barclays, SKF, Astra Zeneca, Lloyds, Bromley By Bow, MyBnk, Schroeder’s, Unilever and Grundfos

11 hours of flight time, a hot shower with a cold beer and a sweet suite upgrade later, I’m looking over Mexico city contemplating the next few days weighing up our chances of bringing Dubplate Drama to Latin America.

I’d forgotten how crazy this city feels, from the windowless van that met us at the airport to the diner having dinner with armed guards around him across from us at the Taco place last night.

It feels like Dubplate Drama has a home here. All the components are here, a politicised underground music scene, important social issues that fail to connect with a disengaged youth, and a growing appetite for innovative use of technology across platforms… and now were here too.

With three days to do a deal.

Nearly five years ago to the day, one of the craziest ideas ever to emerge from Livity Towers was broadcast simultaneously on Channel 4, MTV, 3 Mobile, MYSPACE and on PlayStations new PSP

Dubbed “the worlds first”, Dubplate was the show where the audience decided the drama by voting on multiple choice moral dilemma cliffhanger endings. From the Sun claiming “The Government Must Watch This Show” to the ultimate effect of shifting a 20 year bias in ChildLines caller profile, it might have been crazy, but Dubplate achieved a lot.

It was a hit with it’s audience, who rarely saw young black UK culture on mainstream screens and across three series it went from late night 11 minute episodes, via a bunch of international, festivals, conferences and awards to the final series premiering at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

It was an awesome journey, and as much as it nearly made us, it also very nearly killed us. Literally. More than once.

Breakfasting on the balcony sleep deprived but getting ready to present to the largest broadcaster in Latin America, I’m wondering why were trying to do it again, and why we’ve decided to make it even more difficult by doing it on the other side of the world.

Y no hablas Espanol!

Multiple motivations made me want to come back to Mexico, but that’s another story, now we’ve got two hours to line up the week ahead.

We’re seeing the brave public service broadcaster, the ones with integrity and The Wire, but not the Peso’s, we’re seeing the overlords of Latin TV, the Tele Novella Factories with the Pesos, we’re seeing the brands that connect and keep it credible from Nokia to Adidas and we’re seeing some of the most important and inspiring social enterprises an youth projects in town, not to mention some pretty amazing production people…

I think I know which way I’d like to turn out, but with open minds, busy diaries, brave hearts and bad Spanish, today we take on Mexican TV… after another cup of coffee.

Buenos Suerte! Dubplate Del Drama

- -

None of this would have been possible without the British Council and they’re amazing teams in both London and Mexico. In particular Angelica Atristain and Claire DeBraekeleer.

One day in, and several meetings later (a fortunate number of them by the pool) the answers are beginning to appear…

Dubplate UK told real life stories from the underbelly of the music industry, exposing myths and letting young people see that sometimes the ‘dream’ can really be a nightmare. In Mexico a well known, and loved, singer, who crossed the line of a drugs and gangs lifestyle, wound up beaten, raped, his fingers cut off and left in the street to die.

Can we create compelling dilemmas based on true stories?

Dubplate UK put the stars of the show into cliffhanger dilemmas that real young people had faced for the viewers to decide the outcome. In Mexico a gang strolled into a concert, shot fatally into the crowd and asked the band to ‘choose’ if they would like to leave the venue and come to perform at their ‘party’.

Is there a young audience for Dubplate in Mexico?

Dubplate UK racked up a couple of million views online, a 300% viewer increase in it’s best performing TV slot and still receives daily comments and likes from it’s young (but niche) audience… In Mexico, a country of 120,000,000 people, the average age is 25 and the equivalent of half of the UK (nearly 30 million people) are at school…

America buys the drugs that keep a violent war alive across the northern border of a beautiful country and an ancient culture. As well as providing the demand, America also supplies the guns, and a dodgy Gangsta rap mentality too. An entire police force is viewed (not wholly innacurately) as corrupt and the perceived value of life counts down on daily news reports that, literally, run a rolling tally of the (mainly young) people who’ve been shot.

At the same time a beautiful and brilliant people desperately want to make a difference, against these significant odds, but are faced with a political and media status quo that would make George Orwell proud, the ubiquitous Tele Visa TV just launched the next presidential candidate, who alongside his Tele Novella national figure of a starlet wife, is already accepted to have won… 2 years ahead of a vote.

Young people in Mexico are rarely given an honest chance to have a say, and the young people we’ve heard from clearly want one… even if it is just to decide on a drama, even it is only a reflection of real life.

Perhaps this is why at 15 minutes into our first presentation to three senior commissioners at a major broadcaster (and in Mexico a major broadcaster is the size of a space station) We were stopped whilst they went to get the President of the entire network…

There’s two days left to do a deal…

Comienzo de las negociaciones

- – -

None of this would have been possible without the British Council and they’re amazing teams in both London and Mexico. In particular Angelica Atristain and Claire DeBraekeleer.

And it’s never happened to me before, until this week.

Which made it even crazier when the same thing happened again, the next day, on the other side of Mexico City at a rival channel.

Neither president was present, so second meetings were set up and a tale of two channels began.

The second largest Spanish language TV network on the planet renowned for it’s world conquering Tele Novella’s Vs the pioneering public service broadcaster, borne out of a university, radical, socially principled, but quite a bit smaller, rival.

Trying to weigh up the pro’s and con’s of each, we zig zagged across Mexico City meeting the other key players and components needed to make Dubplate Mexico a reality, with a few pavement restaurant meetings along the way.

We sounded out brand partners and sponsors and met everyone from the world’s largest handset manufacturer to the planets most popular sportswear brand and a few more in between.

Luckily the one we were most excited about was the one most excited about us.

We met with the head of the British Council and have never been left so open jawed by a vision for cultural and social
improvement achieved through creative and social enterprise. If he pulls it off, his plans will be a lesson for Social Enterprise
around the world.

We asked everyone we met to vote on the right TV station for us in the great big Dubplate channel debate.

Vote A to reach all of Latin America vote B to keep it real.

And everyone surprised us with his or her answers.

Global trainer brand say go with the little guys it’s about perceptions.

Awe inspiring Social Entrepreneurs with hands on experience working with kids on the street say go with the big guys, it’s social change at the greatest scale that is required.

We were incredibly lucky with the access, interest and opportunity we had, and we tried to make the most of it.

The only meeting we didn’t get to have was with someone who’d recently decided it was time to leave Mexico City when their five year old children were given ‘Getting away from Kidnappers’ training at school.

That stopped us in our tracks.

As did the Chocolate Social Entrepreneur who made and sold chocolate shaped grenades and bombs to raise awareness and money to help heavily exploited cocoa farmers.

We also had our preconceptions of the Telly Novella challenged. There are strong social and moral messages core to the Telly Novella and a significant history of them focussing on specific social issues and raising awareness and working in partnership with relevant advisory and support networks.

Not entirely unlike Dubplate Drama, just a lot, lot longer.

We were further put in our place as we were reminded about the validity of the simple escape of the Telly Novella if you travel four hours round trip to work a 12-hour shift every single day.

Our cynical assumptions and hesitations about Big Broadcaster were beginning to shift.

If you took the proven change Dubplate achieved in the UK, in terms of behavioural change in young people and the complete shift in audience we achieved for Childline, and then magnified it to a country of 122 million with a average age of 25…. Just as your starting point…?

If you add to this the discovery made during our research that Big Broadcaster has for five years run a daily show dramatising real life stories sent in anonymously by women who can’t speak about them elsewhere, tackling issues from abuse and rape to anorexia and alcohol abuse and then promoting the services, around the show, that these women need to break the cycles they’re caught in…

Our choice of channels was beginning to sharpen.

Less than a day left and a deal to be done…

- -

None of this would have been possible without the British Council and they’re amazing teams in both London and Mexico. In particular Angelica Atristain and Claire DeBraekeleer.