PALOMA FAITH JOINS YOUNG CAMPAIGNER AND UNEMPLOYED CHOIR IN THE BATTLE TO COMBAT YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

Today, chart-topper Paloma Faith joined a group of young unemployed people singing outside the Houses of Parliament as part of Channel 4’s Battlefront campaign.

Paloma, who herself struggled to find a full time paid job after she finished her Masters degree at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art, joined young campaigner Ava Patel and the ‘Youth Voice Collective’ choir to sing M People’s ‘Proud’.

Ava, an unemployed journalism graduate who despite applying for hundreds of jobs has been unable to find full time paid employment, recruited the choir of 18-24 year olds to help in her mission to raise awareness about the high level of youth unemployment in Britain.

Paloma Faith who is supporting Ava’s campaign said; “People are often fearful of young people because they don’t understand, so what better way to appeal to everyone than music.

I struggled to find work after graduating and I’ve probably done every unappealing job under the sun, including washing up in café’s and cleaning up sick - you name it, I’ve probably done it! I’ve always been somebody that’s gone out and worked with the focus that one day my time will come and actually that’s the way that I got to where I am now.

With over one million young people currently unemployed in the UK Ava’s mission is to get youth unemployment to the top of the political agenda and she is using her journalism training to engage the media and the voice of unemployed young people heard.

Channel 4’s Emmy award-winning ‘Battlefront’ campaign is now in its fourth series and profiles the journey of four young campaigners on a mission to tackle the biggest issue facing today’s youth.

For photo captions please use:

 Chart-topper Paloma Faith joins Battlefront campaigner Ava Patel and her choir of unemployed and under employed young people singing outside Houses of Parliament to help raise awareness of youth unemployment in the UK.

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For more information please contact Lydia Turner on lydia.turner@edencancan.com or 0207 467 9404 or Sophie Brickley on sophie.brickley@edencancan.com or 0207 467 9404

 

Notes to editors

About Battlefront 4

Produced by Raw Television for Channel 4 Education, this year Battlefront has scoured the country for unemployed and underemployed young people, to run 2012’s Battlefront’s Campaign to Combat Youth Unemployment. With over one million young people currently unemployed in the UK and the topic hot on the news agenda, Channel 4 launched the fourth series of its Emmy award-winning campaigning project ‘Battlefront’, which will profile the journey of four young campaigners on a mission to tackle the biggest issue facing today’s youth.

Each of the Battlefront campaigners have set up their own Facebook page, Twitter account and YouTube channel, in order to keep their supporters up-to-date with the latest details of the campaign.  Each of these feeds are embedded on the campaign’s own page at channel4.com/battlefront, so visitors will be able to see regular updates with live streaming from all three sources.

channel4.com/battlefront

www.twitter.com/battlefrontuk

www.facebook.com/battlefrontuk

 

Battlefront on TV

 

4 x half hours

This first four-part series of half hours will follow the four unemployed and underemployed young people who have each been selected to run the Battlefront campaign on youth unemployment. Each episode will focus on one of the four campaigners as they explore what it really means to be young and unemployed, the programme will take the viewer on an emotional and entertaining journey, culminating in an arresting, publicity stunt realized with a bit of help from their fellow campaigners.

The series and the website will provide plenty of tips and advice on how young people can give themselves the best chance of getting a job. As in previous years, each of the campaigners will have their own dedicated page on the Battlefront website where they will post regular blogs, photos and updates on their campaign progress. The programmes will feature interactivity between the TV series, the site and social media.

 

1 x half hour

This half hour presenter-led entertainment programme will delve into the world of work and unemployment. Using a mix of TV and film clips as well as entertaining YouTube clips and short celebrity interviews about first jobs, interviews that went wrong, what not to do in the office etc, and entertaining links from our presenter, this watchable half hour, shows us the lighter side of work and unemployment.

 

1 x one hour

For the last four years Battlefront has worked with some incredibly committed and talented young people who have run campaigns about subjects they care passionately about. In this one hour special Channel 4 will follow the stories of just a few of those campaigners and find out what they've been up to since their time with Battlefront. Campaigners like Alex Rose, who ran a hugely successful Gun and Knife Crime Campaign in 2009, or Zuhal Sultan who set up the first ever National Youth Orchestra of Iraq.

 

What people have said about Battlefront over the years:

I think it’s really important for everyone to get involved in an organisation that they’re passionate about. I think we can all do something...  You’re doing a lot by just caring at all. Alicia Keys

I think it’s absolutely amazing what they’re doing, I kind of wish I’d done something like that when I was their age. Ellie Goulding

Young people campaigning? I think it’s good, man, it’s a sign of our generation. Toddla T

Young people have the real fire and spirit, when they have a concern or an idea they go for it 100% so obviously they’re really great campaigners and spokesmen for any cause New Young Pony Club

As long as you’ve got an idea that captures people's imagination on something that needs it you can make a massive difference. The Wanted

 

Battlefront is an Emmy-award winning Channel 4 youth campaigning TV series and online project that follows a group of young campaigners on a mission to change the world.

This year Battlefront has scoured the country for unemployed and underemployed young people, to run 2012’s Battlefront campaign. In a first for Battlefront, they have offered four of these young people a full time job for three months, as part of the Battlefront production team. Each will campaign on youth unemployment and will work with their own celebrity mentor: James Caan from Dragons’ Den, Fairy Jobmother Hayley Taylor, Mr Drew from Educating Essex, Alastair Campbell and Metro’s John Higginson. They will chart their experiences online at channel4.com/battlefront.

The young campaigners include 20-year-old Chelsie, from South East London, who has been unemployed since finishing her A-Levels, Myles, from Walsall in the West Midlands, a 22-year-old graduate who left university in May and has already applied for over 40 jobs, 22-year-old single-mum Kealy from West London who is stuck in a benefits trap, and 23-year-old Ava, from Blackburn in Lancashire, who left university two years ago with a degree in journalism but is still struggling to find a job in her chosen field.

The selected Battlefronters will use their personal experiences and travel the UK to investigate the massive problem of Britain’s out-of-work 16-24-year-olds, guided and supported by experts and celebrity mentors as they cook up some sensational stunts to put the Campaign to Combat Youth Unemployment on the map – making both employers and politicians sit up and take notice. They will challenge the powers-that-be and their own peers as they set out to prove that the youth of the UK desperately want to work and are prepared to do whatever it takes to get a job.

Battlefront will run throughout the year online at channel4.com/battlefront and culminate in a six-part series for broadcast on Channel 4.

 

Battlefront Awards and Nominations –

  • Broadcast Digital 2011 (nominee): Best Multiplatform Project
  • Banff Award 2011 (nominee): Youth Programme (13+) – non fiction
  • International Emmy 2011: Best Digital Programme: Children & Young People
  • BIMA 2010: Winner Social Media award
  • International Emmy 2009: Winner Outstanding Digital Programme: Children & Young People
  • Banff World Television Awards 2009: Winner Best International Youth Programme
  • Positive Images Award 2009: Winner for Best TV Coverage of Young People
  • Webby award 2010 (nominee): Activism
  • RTS Education Award 2009 (nominee): ‘Best Program in the 14-19 year old category’, and for ‘Innovation in Education’.
  • BAFTAs 2009 (nominee): Interactive Innovation
  • BAFTAs 2009 (nominee): Children’s Award (Learning-Secondary)

 

James McNicholas

Junior Digital Account Manager

EdenCancan

020 7467 9404

07584 078 449

@EdenCancan

 www.edencancan.com

Watch Paloma Faith's supportive message for Battlefront filmed this summer (2012) below:

October 9, 2012 5:36am ET by Paloma Faith   Comments (0)

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