Inspire » Region wide

The Breath of Fresh Air project has been set up to encourage the East Midlands to get active and outdoors. Breath of Fresh Air operates with the vision of using cultural activities to raise issues of environmental sustainability.

East Midlands Tourism has commissioned photography of regional Olympians and Paralympians set in key tourist attractions in the East Midlands.

This unique collection of images captures current and aspiring Olympians and Paralympians many of whom live as well as train in the East Midlands, taking part in their chosen sport at leading tourism destinations around the East Midlands.

They showcase the East Midlands as a region of sporting excellence and a great place to visit in the run up to the 2012 Games and beyond.

Igniting Ambition Festival 2010 invests in and celebrates a broad range of festival activity across the three cities and counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

Running from April - November 2010 this is our longest running, most far-reaching festival to date and we hope that in the unique partnerships that it has fostered and developed, it provides the blueprint for future festival activity at a regional level.

This is an exciting, diverse programme, celebrating the wealth of creativity, entrepreneurship and excellence that characterises the East Midlands' cultural landscape in the countdown to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Take a ride in the Whispers Rickshaw and get a taste of China. Don the headphones and immerse yourself in a world where secret pockets hide intriguing objects that contemplate the nature of journeys and destiny.

Classical Chinese music, low-fi electronica, computer gadgetry and story-telling intermingle to create an intimate, philosophical journey that asks the essential question, where are you going?

The Programme uses the prospect of becoming a Games Time Volunteer in 2012 as an inspiration to attract more people into volunteering.

Those that take part in the Programme will receive guidance in training for a qualification and support in their volunteering experience, all of which help as 'stepping stones' toward a new work opportunity or further training. Ultimately, the goal of the Programme is to give people new skills and employment opportunities and raise self esteem and self confidence.

Children across the East Midlands will be developing their hockey skills this summer thanks to a festival being run by the England Hockey Board and supported by the National Hockey Foundation and East Midlands Development Agency.

Quicksticks festivals will be taking place within School Sports Partnerships in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire ahead of the East Midlands regional Quicksticks festival on Saturday 10th July to coincide with the opening day of the Women's Champions Trophy. In total nearly 600 young people from across four counties will have taken part in a Quicksticks festival.

Championing the East Midlands Volunteering & Leadership Programme represents a partnership between the Association of Colleges (AoC) and East Midlands Development Agency.

The programme looks to create a legacy of volunteering inspired by the excitement of the 2012 Games, and provide the FE sector with its own identity to support, promote and reward the benefits of volunteering and leadership. The project follows a successful pilot which incorporated 12 chosen colleges and will now be rolled out to all 26 AOC East Midlands Colleges.

The project links together the 7 Olympic and Paralympic values with the 7 Heptathlon disciplines. The project aims to inspire young people aged 7-19 with the stories of Olympians and Paralympians through a web based resource. Each term will see a new set of web-based resources (www.empoweredcyp.org.uk) focusing on the value and event for that term.

The project aims to inspire young people aged 7-19 with the stories of Olympiand and Paralympiand through a web based resource. Each term will see a new set of web-based resources (www.empoweredcyp.org.uk) focusing on the value and event for that term.

Young Leaders backing Disability Swimming is a project that will target 42 young disabled people aged 16-25 years old.

The Amateur Swimming Association project will provide each young leader on the programme with skills and experiences that will enable them to volunteer at major events including the Paralympic Trials. In addition to providing them with skills and knowledge it will aim to inspire them through mentoring, training and by offering quality experiences.

Musubi is Japanese for a link or a tie and is being used to promote the connections between Japan and the East Midlands.

A series of eight Musubi days (one per term) will be held for approximately 50 young people (years 8 and 9) from Specialist Language Colleges. The children will take part in a variety of activities; including sport, culture, technology, food and the Japanese language.

Musubi will culminate in a grand Musubi day in summer 2012 when all students will be present for a sports, Language and cultural extravaganza.

Building on the runaway success of Lyric Lounge 2009 & 2010, 2011 will see the Lyric Lounge developing into a season of mini-festivals celebrating spoken word in transformed spaces with an aim to inspire people as readers, writers and performers.

Lyric Lounge is a Renaissance East Midlands project funded by Arts Council England and delivered by Writing East Midlands.

Dance4 has invited international artist Miguel Pereira (Portugal) to work with Flying High Youth Dance Company and two local young choreographers - Ben Eagles and Kieran Taylor to create an exciting piece of dance performance work this spring.

The young people will take the work abroad during a creative, cultural international exchange with European youth company TanzZeit Jugendcompany, Berlin. The project will culminate in a celebratory performance by both the UK-based and international young people in Nottingham in the Autumn.

The programme is an innovative, exciting programme with a long term view of encouraging a broad range of young people to volunteer within volleyball and to establish improved structures within the sport to enable young people to contribute to and influence the sports future direction.

The programme will begin by forming a 25^th Hour Project Action Group of volunteers aged 16-25 years with a target of planning and delivering at least four doorstep volleyball sessions in partnership with local community groups in targeted disadvantaged areas.

The programme continues with the formation of local ‘volley squads’ to help volleyball clubs deliver ‘taster’ and ‘come and try it’ sessions. The programme concludes with the formation of a National Youth Forum.

Contemporary artists from China, India, Finland and Singapore are making links with the region's artists and audiences in the first partnership project of its kind by the major visual arts organisations in the East Midlands.

The work with communities local to each venue will lead to a series of new commissions, exhibitions and events in 2011 and 2012. Artists include: Simo Alitalo, Sonia Khurana, Dinu Li, Jason Lim and Vidha Saumya.

Four of the region's most respected theatre makers created a brand new family theatre show that will be touring across the rural East Midlands and beyond this autumn/winter.

Working with members of the prestigious Chongqing Troupe of Sichuan this feast of story-telling will include acrobatic routines, live music, wonderfully colourful costumes and the incredible and ancient Chinese art of face changing that has to be seen to be believed. This is a show that mixes all the best ingredients from the East and West to create something utterly unique.

The challenge involves 15 teams of 6 students in Year 10 or above to take part in a one day challenge at the beginning of March 2011. The aim is to motivate young people to take up a foreign language to a higher level.

This challenge will inspire students through combining a language need with a task associated with the Games.

The students will be set a series of tasks relating to hosting a pre-games training camp and they will use the “Have you got what it takes resources” as an introduction into the language programme. In addition the project has teamed up with the youth sports trust, and will utilise some of the local language and sports leaders from their partner schools as this will help bring physical activity into the day, linked with language.

Our Sporting Life is an exhibition that explores the Olympic values set through photo montages, audio capture, and collected items.

The high quality exhibition has three distinct elements;

• The National Story: telling the story of the development of the Olympic movement in the UK.
• The Olympic Timeline: illustrating the history and lead up to London 2012
• Local Sporting achievement and Olympic glory: a specific part of the exhibition connects to significant sporting achievements and stories of local interest.

Bidding, organising, running and winning successful international contracts, can be very stressful and time consuming for any business.

 Communicating what your business delivers to - encompassing the passion of the event, the professionalism and expertise of your organisation – and then reflecting this within a quality visual presentation, in a concise and palatable manner, is no mean feat.  This half day workshop is aimed at organisations looking to present at the highest level and put themselves in contention to win London 2012 and sporting related contracts.

The East Midlands Badminton Leadership Camp is an annual event for sports leaders in school years 10-13 (14-19 years old) who have an interest in badminton.

The aim of the camp is to train and develop young people into skilled and able volunteers and leaders, whilst raising the profile of Badminton and the Olympics. This will be the start of a new leadership pathway, with future possibilities for the participants to become involved at Badminton England and regional events and opportunities. Throughout the days, the attendees will have the opportunity to improve both their leadership skills and badminton knowledge, whether as an athlete, coach, official or volunteer.

The Lyric Lounge is a season of mini-festivals celebrating spoken word in transformed spaces. This year the Lounge will tour Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland, where lead artists will be commissioned to write inspirational pieces of work.

Diverse participants, including young people, will engage with internationally renowned spoken word artists and writers, benefiting from workshops, showcases, and the opportunity to explore new venues. The festivals will bring literature to new audiences, who will experience a broad range of creative work in unusual settings.

Developed by Renaissance East Midlands, Migration Stories will collect and share stories from migrant communities across the East Midlands with archive footage being shown across the BBC Lives Sites network in the region.