The Exchange

The Exchange was a pilot project conceived by Prevista and CIDA to assist groups in the music sector in Inner North and East London who faced particular disadvantage in the labour market.

The project was piloted with a selected group of eight people from Black and other minority ethnic groups (BMEs) from the London Boroughs of Hackney, Haringey and Tower Hamlets working in different aspects of the music industry as promoters, performers, or founders of music-based business development and community projects. Each was seeking to progress their careers in different aspects of the music industry.

The four key elements of the project were:

An initial diagnostic needs analysis
Four trainer-led business development group workshops
Three one-to-one support sessions with a specialist creative business adviser
An action learning based working group producing a showcase event at the Spitz Venue in May 2004.

The project was funded by Business Link for London's 'Knowledge Centre for Black and Minority Ethnic Businesses' through the Equal Programme, which is part of the European Social Fund (ESF), and was run in Spring 2004.