About Us

We started life in 2003 as a temporary project funded by Coventry City Council, and spent 10 years in the north east of the city running funded youth sessions. After the threat of closure due to funding cuts, we went it alone in 2013 and set up as a not-for-profit company.

 

Thanks to crucial funding from Youth Music, Coventry City Council Connecting Communities, Heart of England, City of Culture trust and the Positive Youth Foundation, we’ve been able to run inclusive music and media sessions, empowering young people aged 8-25 years old, free of charge.

 

Since 2017, we have shared premises with community arts organisations Imagineer Productions, Highly Sprung and Open Theatre. We also have strong links with other youth organisations in Coventry and beyond such as Aptitude, CYA, Grapevine, Prism and the National Youth Orchestra.

 

Opportunities

Here at Media Mania we’ve been able to plan and run our own events; we have coordinated the main stage for Coventry Welcomes International Refugee Week celebration, held live music nights at the Old Grammar School, featured in music videos, and much more — all of which were planned, arranged and delivered by the young people in our steering group.

 

Every year, we run a music tent at Coventry’s Godiva Festival with a full weekend of live performances, both with our members and with established local artists — building strong links and working together with the community lies at the core of what we do.

 

Expanding Horizons

People who have joined us have gone on to expand their own professional skillsets; some who originally joined us as young people have now become youth mentors, and some have recently earned their first qualifications in youth work practice!

 

Diversity and Accessibility

We are proud to call ourselves a safe space. As a community organisation, we are committed to running sessions in which diversity is celebrated, and to ensuring our young people are given the tools to counter discrimination of any sort, and to be understanding of one another as individuals.

 

We have always strongly believed that music should be accessible by all, without exception. That’s why we have made it our mission to keep sessions strictly free and open to all young people who wish to join us.

 

All of our sessions are built on the foundation of supporting each individual, celebrating our differences and creating opportunities for our young members, while growing solid and valuable skills in the process.