LIFE OF PIE LIFE OF PIE
Writer Nicola WrenBring out the birthday cake - Pie Factory Music is celebrating twenty years of helping Ramsgate’s young people make positive change as individuals and in the community. The charity’s success has seen its reach extend across Thanet to Dover, and with ever evolving plans there’s lots to celebrate. Hip, hip, hooray!
Pie was formally set up in 2002 as a small, charitable music organisation providing lifeenhancing creative opportunities for young people in Thanet. By carefully listening and responding to the needs of those who have come through its doors, the charity has been growing consistently ever since. I dropped in on a Tuesday evening and was inspired to discover just how many pieces of this pie there are.
The centre brims with energy; there is bright graffiti on walls behind
posters and sign-up sheets, young people buzz around the various rooms, chatting confidently with their peers and leaders. Here they are free to explore their potential as a group and as individuals, not only to make music but also enact positive change within their local community and beyond. In the space of just one evening they can rehearse a musical number in the band room (tonight it’s “Zombie” by the Cranberries) then discuss how they can support a local care home through their weekly volunteer group ACT (Action Community Thanet).
ACT is led by young volunteers and their enthusiasm is palpable. In the last year alone the team have organised a funfair fundraiser and regular litterpicks, and are now in the thick of organising a big sleepout, which will see them raise money for Thanet Shelter and Support by sleeping outside for one night this winter. Holding court at the meeting is 15-year-old Lois, who came to Pie through its one-to-one creative wellbeing scheme for those who may be intimidated by group sessions. Lois wrote a rap about her experience of being bullied at school and Pie helped her to record it. She then joined ACT, where her social life and confidence has flourished. Stories like this are ten-a-penny here. Many of the leaders benefitted from the charity as young people themselves, before moving up through its internships to become permanent members of staff. Pie’s managing director of eight years, Steph Dickinson, first got involved at the age of 15 through taking free guitar lessons at the space which is now Big Jelly Studios. She went on to train with Pie as a freelance workshop and programme leader, before going full time and taking the helm in 2012. At that time, funding for the arts was suffering, so in order to become more sustainable Pie decided to expand into the wider world of youth work. By 2013 Pie Factory was commissioned by Kent County Council to start running open-access youth provision across Ramsgate. It moved from Big Jelly Studios to the larger, council-owned building in St Lawrence, Ramsgate. By 2017 it was
servicing the whole of Thanet District and the District of Dover.
There is a lot of excitement among the team around their most recent programme Open Arms; a Friday evening session for young, unaccompanied asylum seekers and refugees. Funded by the NHS and created specifically to provide a safe, inclusive space where participants can relax, socialise and enjoy games and activities, the evening includes music, art, games, cooking classes and more. They’ve recently partnered with Discovery Planet in Ramsgate to hold a range of science workshops too. Pie also offers a course in bicycle maintenance, organises regular outdoor activity residential trips to Wales, and in 2020 it crowdfunded Soundcheck, a free counselling service for young people. Steph says, “We’ve got counsellors who are really diverse, both racially and in their gender identity and sexuality, which were the two big things that young people were saying they really need to talk about but don’t know who to talk to.” Pie has also teamed up with local schools to provide additional pastoral support, which has felt particularly necessary post-pandemic as many students have struggled to integrate back into school life.
Meanwhile the music and creative arts programme at Pie is thriving. In 2021 the Wantsum Music? youth record label was launched, with local duo Debdepan recording and releasing their debut single “Darkest Hour” this September. The label is a product of the two-year Emerging Artists Programme which provides a weekly space for 18 to 25-yearolds starting out in the music industry, helping them to build a network, learn from industry professionals and hone their craft. So far 23 young people have been supported in their journey to become independent artists since the programme began in 2018. There is also the Girls Programme, where girls and non-binary 13 to 18-year-olds can come and develop their musical ability and understanding of the industry in a safe space which, historically, has been particularly challenging for female
artists to navigate. Members of the group have learnt performance and sound engineering skills, performing at Ramsgate Music Hall, the Gulbenkian in Canterbury, Rosslyn Court in Margate and Screaming Alley cabaret events, and connected with local musicians and industry experts.
Looking ahead, Pie aims to continue to improve the lives of young people, and Steph stresses an important part of that is “continuing to involve them in the running of the organisation and on our boards so that they have a stake in what we’re doing at every level”. One of the members of ACT became a trustee in 2021. This ethos, combined with the charity’s experience and growing influence, is the perfect recipe for invoking change on a wider scale, at local authority and government level, and is certainly worth cheering on.
info@piefactorymusic.com
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Pie is having a party and you're all invited! Pie Party Big Gig is at Elsewhere on Friday 3 December from 7pm
“Young people buzz around the various rooms, chatting confidently with their peers and leaders”