Comics Youth

As you definitely know all too well at this point, the current Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown has changed life as we know it. Like many other organisations, this has meant that Comics Youth has had to adapt very quickly and drastically to still deliver our core services to children and young adults during lockdown. We're currently providing a blended service&nbsp;with projects being delivered&nbsp;<a href="https://comicsyouth.co.uk/covid19-info" target="_blank">online</a>, and we hope to start delivering IRL sessions at our HQ as soon as we can.&nbsp;In these uncertain times we need your support more than ever.&nbsp; Demand for our services has increased dramatically within a very short space of time and we're struggling to find the resources to keep up. We need your support to ensure that we can deliver high quality, urgent support to all children and young adults who need it.&nbsp; WHO ARE COMICS YOUTH CIC? Comics Youth CIC are a Liverpool, UK based non-profit organisation dedicated to platforming the voices of marginalised young people between the ages of 8 to 25 through comics, zines, and other art and literature. Our young beneficiaries include disadvantaged and vulnerable young people who often find their struggles, identities and experiences to be diminished by mainstream society. At Comics Youth, we offer these young people a creative pathway with which to articulate their feelings and provide a supportive and inclusive platform from which they can be heard and celebrated. Our aim is to empower youth across the Liverpool City Region to flourish from the margins: Harnessing their own narratives, developing the confidence and resilience to succeed on their own path and to be inspired to become catalysts of change within their community. WHO BENEFITS FROM COMICS YOUTH SERVICES? We’re extremely proud to support young people with physical and learning disabilities, NEET individuals, those experiencing mental ill-health, young people who are chronically and terminally ill, and young people of LGBTQIA+ identity. Established by young people, for young people, Comics Youth is also led by individuals with lived experiences of what it’s like to grow up as marginalised young people. WHAT IS PATREON? Patreon is a platform which provides supporters of our work an opportunity to help us grow as an organisation. It’s a place we can share zines, comics, blogs, and process, while giving us a space to communicate with you directly. Pledging to Comics Youth is fantastic for us as an organisation, obviously. But it’s also important for helping to foster the emerging talents and self-belief of our young people and the various programmes and projects that we deliver with them. By becoming a supporter of Comics Youth, you aren’t just helping us with the financial side of things, you’re also championing the lives and work of every young person we serve. In addition to feeling hunky dory about that side of things, your pledge will also give you access to a variety of treats including store discounts and exclusive content along with public declarations of how much we appreciate you! Most importantly your pledge grants us the opportunity to grow as an organisation while helping us to keep our services completely free of charge for the young people we work with. HOW DOES IT WORK? We have three differently priced tiers for a range of budgets through which you can support Comics Youth. Simply select the amount that you feel most comfortable donating to us each month and you’ll instantly become an active hero in supporting the creative youth of today. Even the smallest pledge adds up to a lot in the long run, helping young people to access opportunities provided to them directly from you (…through us). And don’t worry, you can edit or cancel your pledge at any time that suits you. YOUR MONEY WILL SUPPORT 
 
The Stay Safe Club 
Put together in response to the issues and pressures currently being
experienced by young people in lockdown,&nbsp;<a href="https://comicsyouth.co.uk/staysafeclub" target="_blank">The Stay Safe Club</a> is a project promoting
safety, wellbeing, calm, and connection during a time of isolation and
uncertainty. The project will deliver free lockdown care packs to children and
young adults across the Liverpool City Region full of carefully curated treats including a wellness
journal, stickers, art supplies, a zine and an exclusive t-shirt. The project
will also launch our new&nbsp;<a href="https://comicsyouth.co.uk/pen-pal-info" target="_blank">Pen Pal scheme</a>, set up to help promote offline
connections, friendship and support at a time when communication and
information – particularly in online spaces – can feel overwhelming and unsafe.
 Mentorship &amp; Training 
We’ve moved all of our current programmes and projects into being&nbsp;<a href="https://comicsyouth.co.uk/covid19-info" target="_blank">delivered online</a> via Discord and that also means that we haven’t stopped delivering
mentorship and training to the young people that we serve. As a result, we continue
to encourage, nurture, inspire and mentor young artists and writers in the
development of their work and artistic practice. Be it offering advice or feedback
on works-in-progress, delivering group workshops tailored at training young
people to learn new ways to approach their work, or simply working one-on-one
with young writers and artists in helping them to create work which we can then
publish as zines, books, and blog posts on our website. 
Commission Payments for Young People's Work 
We believe that no writer or artist should have to work for ‘exposure’ – and that’s
especially true for young people who deserve to know and understand their value
as creators at the very start of their careers. We publish a lot of terrific
writing and artwork by some seriously talented young adults and we want to start
offering realistic compensation for their work. We think they deserve it, and
we hope you do too. 

Additional Lockdown Support 
Kindly giving us a monthly pledge can really help us to pay off a lot of
hidden costs associated with the work that we do. On top of the everyday holistic
art workshops we do with young people, we’ve also set up&nbsp;<a href="https://comicsyouth.co.uk/comics-youth-radio" target="_blank">Comics Youth Radio</a> – a
new online station designed to be by and for young people – and a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.twitch.tv/comics_youth" target="_blank">Comics Youth Twitch channel</a> for streaming live games. Both of which have been set up to offer structure,
calm, and reassurance to young people during this challenging moment. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for even considering becoming a Patreon of Comics Youth and support the work with do with our young people. If you’d like more information about us and the work we do, you can visit <a href="http://www.comicsyouth.co.uk/">www.comicsyouth.co.uk</a>, and if you have any other questions that aren’t answered there, feel free to drop us an email at <a href="mailto:hi@comicsyouth.co.uk">hi@comicsyouth.co.uk</a>.

Free

<ul><li>Highlighted under the "Pals" section of our website to show your valued support.</li><li>A 10% discount code for our online store</li></ul>

Pals

<ul> <li>Highlighted under the "Buds" section of our website to show your valued support.</li><li>Entry into a monthly raffle where you could win *fabulous prizes*.</li><li>A 15% discount code for our online store (we currently don't have access to our office so all orders will be fulfilled as soon as we possibly can send them!).</li> </ul>

Buds

<ul> <li>Highlighted under the "BFF" section of our website to show your valued support.</li><li>Entry into a monthly raffle where you could win *fabulous prizes*.</li><li>Spontanious gifts (we'd like to send you things every once in a while to say thanks!).</li><li>A 20% discount code for our online store (we currently don't have access to our office so all orders will be fulfilled as soon as we possibly can send them!)</li> </ul>

Choose your membership