Epsom News

Unemployed graduates set up community film company

By Lauren May

10:09am Friday 27th January 2012

A group of unemployed graduates who got some work through the Future Jobs Fund have set up their own film company.

The four graduates were hired by Surrey County Council (SCC) in June 2010 on a sixth month contract as part of the Future Jobs Fund for unemployed under 24s.

Employed within the community development department, the team came up with the idea of providing a community film service to promote local charities and social enterprise groups.

It proved so successful SCC offered them a grant to continue for another year.

In December last year they broke away from SCC and set up the Community Film Unit (CFU) to become an independent self-sufficient company and are currently filming the Surrey School Games 2012, making a film about foster care in Surrey and are working on a project with charity Voiceability focusing on the right for adults with learning difficulties to control their own benefits.

Matt Joblin, 26, from Leatherhead, project manager at the CFU, said: “Film is such as powerful media that you genuinely do get to see and end product and people’s lives influenced by what we do. We are able to give a voice to people who normally wouldn’t and that goes a long way to helping and developing communities.”

The CFU has already been awarded a Social Enterprise Mark in recognition of their efforts to reinvest their profits into activities that benefit the community and are now going even further by setting up The Speak Up Fund to part fund local and national film making projects.

Mr Joblin said: "We want to invest a certain amount of money into community organisations if they can match our fund, based on the strongest application.

"If their application for example was to display a significant change within a community or something that promoted young carers then that would be potentially a strong application.

"The fund is there to provide charities, social enterprises and community groups with affordable high quality film. We have already had quite a few applications and even had one from Africa."

For more information and to apply visit communityfilmunit.co.uk

• Email this page