Cornwall Rural Community Council

A Falmouth-based social enterprise has put the county on the map for the delivery of Afro-Brazilian art forms, thanks to a local charity which supports Cornish communities.

Jinga Communities CIC received £1,600 this month (July) thanks to 16 of its stakeholders and support from the Cornwall Rural Community Council (CRCC).

Most of the money will pay for sales training and business consultancy to take it to the next level, allowing the 3-year-old Cornish company deliver more free training in the Afro-Brazilian art forms of capoeira and samba to young people throughout the county.

The rest of the money has been used to ‘put Cornwall on the global map’ following a visit to Sweden, where founding director Craig Blackburn gave a seminar to 100 people from six countries on how capoeira and samba was being used to improve the lives of young people in Cornwall.
‘Who’d have thought that Cornwall would be a leader in social change through Afro-Brazilian music and dance,’ said Mr Blackburn.

‘It seems that this is a very new area of work globally and there is not much research out there. People are calling me a pioneer, yet I live in one of the least culturally diverse parts of the UK.

‘Since my seminar and the publication of an article and video online I have been inundated with responses from people in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil, Jamaica, Latvia, Norway and Finland who are searching for help in this same field.

‘Thanks to CRCC and the 16 students, parents and teachers who supported us, this funding has allowed us to take Jinga to the next level and put Cornwall on the global map in this field,’ he said.

To see the article and video please click here (http://4capoeirathoughts NULL.com/2011/05/13/the-new-era-of-%E2%80%98social-capoeira%E2%80%99/).
CRCC, a local charitable company working for communities and the voluntary sector in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, helped Jinga to access the training grant by supporting 16 learners to achieve an adult qualification in literacy or numeracy, in conjunction with AWC Training.