Empowering Sheffield’s Young Creatives: Hybrid 3 StoryBombs
- matt62695
- Apr 9
- 2 min read
Hybrid 3 StoryBombs is an accessible space where we provide creative writing and audio production workshops for young people in Sheffield. Here’s a look at what we do.
Our mission at Hybrid is to make the world of music and sound accessible to everyone. StoryBombs gives Sheffield’s young people an amazing opportunity to create their own music and narrative podcasts in a professional studio environment.
With help from our team of artists, engineers and workshop facilitators; StoryBombs is inclusive of those with learning disabilities; those in poverty; in hospital; facing homelessness or excluded from school.
Over the years, we’ve created a brilliant variety of stories and soundscapes; collaborating with organisations such as Sheffield Young Carers, Sheffield’s Children’s Hospital and Grimm and Co.
The Young Carers recently worked on a circus themed episode which transported us into a mysterious world of wonders.
At the Children’s Hospital, we brought StoryBombs to the patients where they imagined a meteor crashing into Sheffield, and all the bizarre creatures could have come down with it.
Grimm and Co wrote and recorded a wonderful song with us called Custard Creatures. This was a great way to engage the children, teaching them how to write and record in a real-world setting.
We also offer workshops as part of HAF Healthy Holidays scheme for children entitled to free school meals. The episode below is a great example of how our Storybombs workshops blend dialogue-based storytelling with music production.
As well as our holiday and one-off workshops, we run weekly sessions every Monday with our local young people. Working with the same group every week allows us to produce longer and more in-depth pieces of work.
Down Below was created over a school term. The brief encouraged the group to use their imagination to explore Sheffield's famous Megatron underground tunnel system. The use of descriptive language lifts the project into a wonderful narrative soundscape.
In the run up to Christmas 2024, our Monday group worked specifically on self-reflective writing. At the end of term, the group put together a live performance of spoken-word poetry, instrumentals and even a short play. The goal of this project was to get the group to produce work which can contribute to an Arts Award certification.
These are just some of what we’ve been up to recently. You can find a whole lot more on our streaming platforms and on our social media.
Thank you very much to The National Lottery Community Fund for supporting this project.
If you have a young person who might be interested in signing up to either our holiday or Monday sessions, contact us or book via iPAL.
