Samuel: Creating a Platform for Young People
“The Agency has been a massive stepping stone in my life, it has inspired and empowered me to make a change within my community, they’ve given me the skills, the knowledge and the power to do it” -Samuel
Samuel joined The Agency when he was 15. Samuel and fellow Agent Andrew Obi created Amplify, a project comprising 8 workshops and recording sessions and culminating in the production of an EP and a launch event. Through The Agency, Samuel began to hone his organisational skills responding excellently to a variety of obstacles that arose through the process.
Samuel, with continued support from The Agency and Contact, was successful in securing further funding to allow him to grow the idea further and reach more local artists to offer them opportunities. In February 2017, Amplify 2.0 began producing an album at Manchester’s prestigious Blueprint Studios in addition to holding public events, including an album launch. Amplify was then commissioned to deliver a series of workshops at The Factory(Manchester) Youth Zone in Harpurhey where Samuel received employment as both project manager and assistant facilitator.
Through working with The Agency, he has gained a deeper connection with his community and also became a participant in Contact’s "Future Fires" programme, developing ‘Creation Foundation’ a content creation project working with young people to create socially conscious content. In 2019, he engaged in other Contact programmes, including SAPASS, a European youth exchange project which sought to develop creative dialogues with young people from Rennes, Bologna and Manchester as a way of understanding better routes of engaging young people in culture.
Advocacy and Achievements
Samuel has represented Contact and The Agency appearing on youth panels at Contact's international exchange project Contacting the World 2016.
He has been a member of Youth Parliament and a campaigner working with organisations like Reclaim, Webelong and Students Action for Refugee.
He currently sits as a fund advisor for the Listening Fund, is a governor at Cedar Mount Academy and trustee at the Manchester Youth Zone, a youth centre he attended.
Samuel graduated with a BA in Politics in 2022.
Samuel is now the CEO of Young Manchester. Read more about it here.
Hear more about Samuel’s work on Inspire to Acheive: The Agency podcast.