We are a youth arts charity working to unlock young people's potential whatever their background.

Kingswood Foundation aims to inspire young people to fulfill their potential, particularly those who are most disadvantaged in society. Using state of the art facilities, inspirational artists and one to one personal support we work to unlock young peoples potential and remove the barriers they face to engaging with education, family and their communities. We own and run a 6 acre site in Kingswood which boasts state of the art facilities.

Why the community needs this charity

We believe young people should have the best start in life! Without inspiring activities or personal support young people (especially the most dissadvantaged) will, at best, not fullfil their potential and, at worst, enter a spiral of unemployment, drugs and crime. We tackle three specific areas:- Young people not attending school. Young people not having high quality out of school programmes. Young people with nothing to do during the evening and at weekends.

Results and outcomes

Our three Projects - Arts4Life, Urban Academy and Youth4Youth achieve the following:- 86% of 90 young people a year improve their attendance and engagement at school with a corresponding increase in GCSE's and other qualifications. 200 young people a year attend inspiring arts courses with partners including the BBC, Aardman animations, WOMAD, Bristol Old Vic and Circomedia. 3000 young people attend evening and weekend courses and events reducing local crime by 23% and raising aspirations

Latest activities and projects

The Station

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Urban Academy

The Urban Academy offers highly experienced professional tutors, great facilities and a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. We offer evening sessions in term time and summer schools and master classes in summer holidays. Young people can learn dance, live music, DJing, music technology, film-making, drama and more for just £2 per session. It's open to anyone aged 13-19 and it all takes place at the Kingswood Foundation.  read more

Arts4Life

Arts4Life is a preventative project, designed to re-engage young people who are at risk of exclusion from school, helping to change the pattern of negative behaviour before it impacts on their own lives and those of others around them. Young people come one day a week for ten weeks where they work in small groups on creative projects, developing artistic skills and building their social and emotional skills such as self confidence, team work, conflict resolution, empathy and communication. read more

Youth4Youth

Youth4Youth is run by young people for young people. They run music nights each month attended by 200+ young people. Young bands get the chance to play and young people have somewhere safe to go on a weekend evening. Each year the group raise £30,000 to put on a major showcase of youth arts in Bristol.  read more