Micro-granting organisation Awesome Liverpool hosted its February gift night in the Baltic Triangle, awarding £1,500 in total to ‘awesome’ ideas from the area. The Studio and Liverpool Life Sciences UTC schools hosted the evening, billed as a special gift night for young people under the age of 19.
Seven ideas were pitched to a group of Awesome Foundation trustees, parents and students – ranging from clean-up crews for the Baltic Triangle and science projects including creating packaging and building blocks from Mycelium, to a new mental health campaign.
Ian Parry is principal of Liverpool Life Sciences UTC. He says: “We live in a city renowned for its creativity, passion and ability to communicate with the world. The Awesome Foundation offers a wonderful platform to support and promote, well, ‘awesome’ projects. We were hugely honoured to host the evening at the UTC/ Studio school. It provided an opportunity for our young people to share projects and passions that are well outside the normal school curriculum and they flourished. The young people of this city are going to truly change our world for the better.”
Two ideas from Liverpool Life Sciences UTC each won £500 on the night, and a third, Liverpool Litter Picking Crew, was claimed by Studio student Annabelle. UTC’s winners were mental health campaign ‘Pause’ and Finding the energy in different plastics by scientist Kim-Hendrik.
“We’re really delighted to be associated with the Awesome Foundation as it really ties into the work we do here at the Studio building future entrepreneurs, technologists, creatives and socially-aware global citizens. We hope many more of our students get to present their amazing ideas receive funding allowing them to realise these ideas,” said the Studio’s Enda Carey.
The £1,500 award was the biggest gift night for Awesome Foundation Liverpool, in terms of prizes awarded, since it launched five years ago. It has given out over £50,000 in Liverpool so far, £500 at a time.
Awesome Liverpool is part of a global network of micro-granters. Cities around the globe, from Boston to Sydney, Singapore and Moscow, have a board of trustees, who contribute £50 each every month. The trustees then vote on submissions to award monthly £500 prizes, supporting ‘awesome’ ideas for the city. Liverpool was the first Awesome chapter in the UK, and has been followed by chapters in Manchester and Glasgow.
To find out more about Awesome Foundation – how you can submit a project for consideration, and more info on pitching, head to awesomeliverpool.co.uk.
