An overlooked Fareham retail unit became Unit3, a community art studio developed alongside Step Forward. This post traces the physical, creative and relational work required to make a space people could enter, use and return to.

From 2015 to 2020, I worked across Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham and Havant as Activities Coordinator for SEHCO’s Step Forward project. This post considers what makes participation meaningful: relationships, practical access and a genuine route in.

Art school gave my existing practice time, critique and context. It did not give me ownership of it. This post traces why art and youth work remain related, but distinct.

Hype was a space in which young people’s writing, images and ideas could move from the youth centre into public view. This second part looks at the editing, design, training and shared labour behind it, and at whose work gets recognised.

In 2001, Labour’s New Deal programme placed me with Hype, a youth magazine connected to Southampton City Youth Service. What began as a practical route out of unemployment became an encounter with direct youth work and with questions about creativity, opportunity, authority and relationship that still shape YAW.