RACHEL Hipkiss has helped kids make award-winning films for eight years. What inspires her, is seeing the change in the people the charity works with.

Ms Hipkiss, who is the director, of Signals Media Arts Centre in Colchester, said: “We had someone who sat outside in the corridor on the first time he joined us, then he moved into the corner of the room the next time.

“Finally he ended up with one of the leading roles.

“Seeing young people being excited about what they are making is really good. We are changing people’s lives and making them better.”

Signals, based at Victoria Chambers, in St Runwald Street, Colchester, runs arts projects and classes for youngsters and other people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It celebrated its 25th anniversary last summer and Ms Hipkiss marvels over how far it has come.

She said: “We have been through some tough times. The financial crash hit everyone and small charities like us had a hard time. Since then, we have gone through a rebranding and our name has become synonymous with quality and expertise in media teaching.

“We almost closed a few times, but we are resilient and determined, and we are still here.”

From its early beginnings, started by a committed group of filmmakers, Signals became established as a community media and video workshop in 1988. It has grown from an informal group to a charity with staff and funding.

It was previously involved in running events like the Colchester Film Festival, and has recently finished the Essex Girls project, which saw it create a myth-busting documentary on the subject.

The charity has won many awards for its films. Be a Little Boulder, an animation created by children from Tendring Primary School, won national and international acclaim, with awards from the National Youth Film Festival, Animated Exeter, the Mexico International Film Festival and the International Youth and Animation Festival, in Varazdin in Croatia.

Ms Hipkiss said: “We do a lot of issue-based films and make films with people who don’t necessarily have a voice.

“We had a boy who couldn’t really read, but he said because of doing the projects he got interested in acting, and he would learn to read so he could read scripts.”

The charity, which works with about 2,000 people a year, has also made a film with excluded children from Heybridge.

The film was about body image and bullying and was shown in New York in December last year.

As well as making films, the charity runs a number of projects, including working with the Castle Museum, in Colchester, on a Chinese exchange project.

Ms Hipkiss said: “Staff went to China about six years ago with a group of children from St Helena School.

“They got to choose objects to bring here to the museum for display, it was amazingly popular.

“The children grew about five years in terms of life experience.

They had all the regular fears, but that experience massively changed them.”

The charity has recently been given a grant to buy some new cameras and has earnt funding from Interfilm, thanks to its track record in animation.

The charity is also looking to prepare people for the digital world.

Ms Hipkiss said: “We are holding an event called Plug-in, for anyone who is interested in using technology in their work, for example museums, galleries and artists.

“The three-day workshop is about using what we know and sharing it with other people and using those skills for training.”

The charity is also looking for more funding to develop a Filmmaking in Literacy programme in schools, to engage boys who are not interested in reading or writing.

For more information, visit signals.org.uk call 01206 560255 or e-mail info@signals.org.uk