Case Study 3 - St George’s Day Parade Maidstone

April 2009 saw a vibrant St George’s Day schools parade organised by North West Kent Racial Equality Council supported by the Kent County Council Kent 2012 Small Grants Fund.

The projected aimed to celebrate the day within a modern, ‘culturally diverse 2009 context’. A variety of creative artists worked with young people to help them create visual artistic displays to showcase at the festival style event in Maidstone’s town centre.

The Olympic and Paralympic values were key to meeting such ambitious goals for the parade, notably excellence, friendship and respect were included as important messages to convey as part of the celebrations.

Excellence was used to as a tool to inspire young people to produce new and creative pieces of art to the best of their ability, with friendship not only bringing young people together though art, but also transmitting positive messages of friendship to the audience supporting the parade on the day.

The event engaged a variety of young people from many diverse backgrounds and so respect was seen as a main component of the parade, helping a range of young people celebrate, learn and respect each others tradition and heritage.

"We were very grateful for the support provided by the Small Grants Scheme, as it allowed us to develop the first ever St George's Day Schools Parade. This additional funding allowed us to include more schools and make the parade even more colourful. Similar to the Olympic values our event highlighted the importance of respect, friendship and excellence"
Gurvinder Sandher - Assistant Director North West Kent Racial Equality Council

The Kent 2012 Small Grants provided £1000 of funding support towards costs including:

• Creation of parade stage
• Marketing and advertising
• Coordination of workshops
• Publicity
• Travel costs
• Insurance

For more information on this event contact:
Gurvinder Sandher - Assistant Director North West Kent Racial Equality Council
info@nwkrec.com
www.skillnetgroup.co.uk

For more information on the Kent 2012 Small Grants Fund contact:
James Taylor – Kent Coordinator for the 2012 Games
James.taylor@kent.gov.uk
01622605062