The new platform shining a light on talents of young people in Bristol

In the last year, Delroy Hibbert has made headlines across Bristol, packed in his job and launched an ambitious project for young people – and he’s not looking back.

“I wouldn’t change a thing,” says the Rovers fan with a smile as he reflects on the circumstances that led him to hand his notice in and return to full-time youth work with the creation of a platform that he hopes will create much-needed opportunities in the city and boost wellbeing.

In June 2020, the former sales and marketing manager made headlines when he stepped into an All Lives Matter protest by the Cenotaph, appearing to defuse tense scenes and afterwards, calling for the city to come together.

But it’s his work out of the spotlight in the following months that he’s here to talk about when we meet for a coffee in Elemental bakery on Stokes Croft. It’s a week since the official launch of Freestyle Bristol, a website curated by and for young people in Bristol.

A fundraising campaign has been launched to raise core funding to pay people for their work and Delroy has big ambitions for the project, which has been ongoing behind the scenes for some months.

“This time last year, during lockdown, I was reduced to watching Netflix and reading the internet and what I was reading really started to concern me,” explains Delroy.

“I was really hit by a particular story when a friend of mine was walking through Easton, past the tower blocks, and all she could here was the screams of frustrated children.”

Young people have been disproportionately affected by the impact of lockdown and youth unemployment has shot up, explains Delroy, saying he has seen the negative changes for himself in people he had been mentoring.

“I just thought I can’t sit by and watch this happen,” says the founder of Freestyle Bristol, who first got into youth work in the wake of the 2011 Stokes Croft riots when he spent the night trying to engage with those involved.

He went on to work as the manager for Full Circle and was instrumental in the youth organisation taking on the running of Docklands Youth Centre in St Paul’s.

Listen to Delroy in the latest episode of the Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: 

Freestyle Bristol came about after Delroy secured funding for a project to help boost mental health and wellbeing but was soon persuaded by the cohort he recruited to widen the scope to cover lifestyle and societal issues and provide a platform to showcase the voices and work of young people.

“They worked on the branding of the website, they’ve been working on stories, going out and doing filming, working on post-production – they have been the driving force behind this,” says Delroy proudly.

“We have a group of young people who have various skills but they have never been able to access the mainstream industry. They want to develop their careers and the website provides a platform for that.”

The fundraising campaign has been launched to pay young people to run the business-side of Freestyle Bristol and for their work on the site, which shines a light on untold stories in the city, from film to politics and everything in between.

The organisation has already partnered with others in the city, including ACE (Aspiration, Creation, Elevation) and Bristol Rovers, as part of a wider bid to link young people up with opportunities in the city. The next step is to run skills workshops.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRPBhOFrJSa/

As for future ambitions? “I would like to see it expand so we are working with people across the city,” says Delroy.

“We are in talks with youth organisations in other parts of the city. I would like to see us have a hub so we can run our own projects and workshops from there.”

The latter will mean team members and contributors will have a place to go to work together, brainstorm ideas and work on projects, but Delroy says it’s important to maintain a flexible, open door policy to make Freestyle Bristol accessible to anyone in the city.

Freestyle Bristol is on the lookout for contributors, aged 16 to 30, and also any businesses or organisations that could help with sponsorship, providing opportunities or office space.

Contact Freestyle Bristol via www.freestylebristol.com/contact

Main photo by Ellie Pipe

Read more: The centre that’s been making a difference to young lives in St Paul’s for generations