MAMA Youth Project

Mama Youth Project became a registered company in 2006 and became a registered charity in May 2007 (No. 1119238). We are based in Ealing however we work with young adults from all over London. There are four main volunteers working at MAMA Youth Project.
The founder, Bob Clarke, who started the organisation in 2005, has been a professional editor in broadcast television for over twenty years, and personally funded the first two years of operation. The training is based on real experience of doing the job that is assigned to a young adult. They have to perform their duties in a highly professional manor, taking full account of the discipline that goes with working in the television industry. Mama Youth Project is a full working production company.
Mama Youth Project offers free hands-on training in television production as a Production Assistant, Production Manager, Production Co-ordinator, Camera/Lighting Operator, Location Sound Recordist, and Editor. The young adult participants between the ages of 16 and 25 are not seen as trainees but work colleagues for the 5-7 weeks they are with us producing What’s Up. MAMA Youth actively promotes diversity within the television industry by giving free training to diverse groups of people who are underrepresented within the industry. The main reason MAMA Youth exists is to give young adults the practical skills and means to have a strong chance of finding employment.
The project offers training to black and other ethnic minorities, white working class and disadvantaged young adults of any background. The project, to an extent, offers free training to young adults with minor disabilities we also work with homeless, excluded, single parents, asylum seekers and young offenders. Mama Youth also work with young adults who fall under NEET.
Most recently MAMA was chosen as one of the top 30 initiatives in the European Community for showing good practice and initiative in helping people from black and ethnic minorities and other disadvantage backgrounds obtain careers in the media industry. (Report to be published in the first half of 2009 by the Media Diversity Institution)
As a result of the work that we do we have a 31% success rate on limited funding, where young people have gone on to work in the media industry working for Sky and the BBC among others. MAMA has also received a commitment from employers such as Endemol Productions, who are willing to give jobs to some of the young adults who work with us.