How we've helped Drums4Fun

Like many other businesses working with those more vulnerable or at a great risk of contracting COVID-19, Drums4Fun has seen the way it works shift rapidly over the past 12 months. In fact, the Community Interest Company has only conducted the one percussion session in a face-to-face setting since March 2020.

Musical Director and owner of Drums4Fun, Graham Kemp, said it has been an incredibly challenging period as being a CIC they’ve fallen through the cracks in terms of accessing what Government business support has been made available.

“We have had no income whatsoever, which has put us under significant pressure with our ongoing fixed costs,” he said.

Drums4Fun has adapted, however, and like many other businesses it has transitioned to the online world in order to deliver their workshops virtually to their many participants across the county.

“We started these in the early part of 2020, then did them again in November and in the lead up to Christmas. You can find an old pot or pan, an old chopping block or a spoon and just join in with us and have some fun,” Graham said.

The Skills Hub has helped Graham improve his digital know-how, with this newfound expertise leading to the purchase of new equipment.

“We received £5,000 through the Cornwall Community Foundation, so we’ve gone and purchased a system that will allow us to work more closely with people with quite profound disabilities through assigning sounds to certain movements. We’re very excited by this as it will allow more people to engage with our workshops.

“The Skills Hub have been amazing for us. It’s that link that the Skills Hub provide to so many talented professionals that is most useful, and I’m very grateful for the support and help from the team,” Graham said.

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Skills Hub from October 2017 - June 2023 was part funded by the European Social Fund and match funded by Cornwall Council and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership. The project  received £2,885,993 of funding from the European Social Fund as part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England.