15/10/2020
After reading this we just had to help......
Please support this unique and fantastic venue, we are extremely lucky to have this facility on our door step and we need to do our part to help support and keep this wonderful business going!
Please show your support for local businesses - even if it’s just hitting the share button or even better make a donation!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/unitninemk
It’s nice to be nice 👍🏽
🙏🏻 We are Unit Nine 🙏🏻
We are obviously hugley disappointed not to have been offered financial support today. It is going to have a HUGE impact on whether or not we can sustain the venue until this pandemic is over.
We wanted to tell you a bit more about Unit Nine. This is quite a long status but please do give it a read, you may learn something about us you never knew before.
We are not just a live music venue but we see ourselves as a hub for community engagement.
For info, the Cultural funding today was distributed by the Arts Council England. We were rejected for any funding based on the very generic feedback you can see below..
‘’We are unable to offer you a grant because:
- On balance we decided other applications more closely aligned with the criteria for this fund
- Our decision making takes many factors into account. We had to think about your financial viability, resilience and sustainability and cost- effective plans for using any award from this programme for the period 1 October 2020 – 31 March 2021.
- We considered whether your organisation is culturally significant and/or contributing to providing cultural opportunity in England.
- We also had to think about the balance of organisations we are supporting, taking into account geographical areas, range of artform and disciplines and size and type of organisations.
Due to the high volume of applications we received, we will be unable to provide any further feedback at this time.’’
Quite clearly this is a copy & paste job and after speaking with many other venues throughout the UK, they received the same feedback. Not very useful feedback at that.
So now, UNIT NINE...
Unit Nine offers a wide and diverse range of musical opportunities within one versatile venue. Unit Nine consists of a professional recording studio, working stage with industry-level sound and lighting, an intimate performance area and education rooms.
Aside from being a Live Music Venue, we pride ourselves on our passion, commitment, knowledge and skills for working alongside children and young people, helping them to develop as confident individuals and celebrate their achievements. Our work encourages individuality and values diversity.
We are DBS, safeguard and First Aid trained and have experience of working with SEND students and those with challenging behaviour. We go the extra mile to make sure everything we do is 100% up to standard and in line with regulations.
We have seen nearly 100 young people through our Project 9 course that is now used as a pathway to Education, Work or Voluntary roles. We give people hope, a chance and a belief that they can achieve the goals they set themselves in the future.
The work we do on our courses has been acknowledged by the MK Council, MK Community Foundation & many schools / independent bodies.
We have worked alongside Thames Valley Police and before Lockdown, we had a course planned to work with young gang members (this isn’t an easy project to run due to the nature of the course BUT TVP see us as a high quality provider of music education provision - we take pride in this)
We also work directly with private care homes, helping young people in care to engage with music in a positive way. We help to educate them on the basics of the music industry and help to develop their personal skills, such as confidence, self esteem, positive attitude & language.
We invite schools to Unit Nine, where we’ve created a music industry based school day. We integrate making music with education, giving the children experiences that they could usually only dream of.
We run unique children’s recording studio parties and disco parties, where we again give experiences like no other. We help to make dreams come true.
Through lockdown we created Speak Up MK, a series of online video interviews talking to inspiring young people from within our community. We champion all things good in MK and we do as much as we can to help grow not only ourselves but the people around us.
We have worked with numerous charities in providing a space for them to host events and we have also held charity events of our own.
Why all of the above? Well, we find it very hard to believe that we are not in line with the criteria for this funding. As far as we are aware, it would be rare to find another venue that works so extensively within the community on education programmes, in such an in depth manner, aswell as the high quality events we put on for thousands of people each month.
We are hugely disappointed that we didn’t receive any financial support, as this now adds huge pressure onto us as a business. Bills are still to be paid and income is limited.
We are exploring many options for socially distanced events but we do have to weigh up the risk of government fines (we can’t control everybody’s actions, it’s impossible!) against what income we could possibly make holding an event, as a 60 capacity venue (yes that’s right, following guidelines we can fit 60 into the venue. Extremely viable isn’t it? When our usual capacity is 500)
We are fighters. We started from absolutely NOTHING. We are organic, we will continue to grow, as much as circumstances allow.
Milton Keynes is one of the toughest towns / cities in the UK for entertainment / nightlife and when we opened, many people didn’t think we would last 6 months. We have grown to be one of the destination event spots in MK which we are extremely proud of.
We have re-invested into the venue on multiple occasions which ultimately re-invests into our community. People travel from far & wide to our events meaning we are not only welcoming the local community but people from further afield, who then spend money on other local amenities such as hotels, transport & eateries.
We hope this gives a much broader insight into Unit Nine as a venue. We are not just a place to ‘get drunk,’ we are a family. Whether it’s a live music event, a DJ led event or a course we are running, it’s all for the greater good.
Events are more than just a one off. They mean so much to people’s happiness, their mental health, their social circles. It’s a time to escape from the work place, a time to catch up with old faces.
All we want to do is to survive so that when normality resumes, we can continue where we left off.
For a small business that has sacrificed so much to give so much back to the community in a short space of time, Is that too much to ask from our government?
Today, we feel like we are worth the amount of money you have granted us. £0.
Thankyou for reading this far down,
Jamie & Dom 🙏🏻💙
If you would like to make a donation to us, please feel free. Www.gofundme.com/unitninemk
P.s we need a photo update 😃
