Jam Lab Business Plan (Integrated Draft v4)

Overview

JAMM Labs is a collaborative initiative creates open educational resources (OER) for project-based media and technology learning. It supports research and development processes in collaboration with community and academic partners.

Jam Lab builds on the exploratory work of Noisy Toys and The Makery, and focuses on low-cost, low-impact digital technologies used in expressive, playful, and community-based ways. Activities take place both in mobile formats and at local centres (currently in Todmorden and Hebden Bridge), supported by volunteers and local educators.

JAMM Labs is a sub-project of the Scavenger Labs company. Led by Mick Chesterman (Manchester Met School of Education) and Steve Summers (Noisy Toys), the initiative follows a flexible financial and branding structure that enables partnership work and adaptability.

JAMM-Labs Strands / Products

Workshops and Courses: Focussed on families and young people - specialising in areas of playful project-based learning, home education, and neurodiversity.
Open Educational Resource Creation: Accessing funding to produce OER and distribute them via our networks.
Research Partnerships: Exploratory research collaborations involving education and resource creation with academic, local government and other institutional partners.
Knowledge dissemination & Networking: Online and in-person events to encourage and help partners and home educators access our resources and disseminate our inclusive education processes.
Outreach Events: Installations and interactive stalls to promote the JAMM Labs ethos and activities.

There are already activities/ventures within existing Scavenger Labs project where there is overlap with those listed above.

Noisy Toys: Workshop / installations in schools and museums with performance elements.
FLOSS Manuals: OER production, and partnership resource creation.
Makery Workshop: Place-based, community learning; skill sharing with a focus on inclusion.

Trialling an Open Source business model for JAMM Labs

JAMM logo text

Our goal is to:

design and deliver innovative educational experiences (using low-cost, low impact and accessible toolsets)
work with partners to translate these experiences in to attractive, inclusive educational resources in the form of kits and online courses that are disseminated and used widely.

We are investigating different models to try to make our work sustainable and replicable. One model of particular interest is the open source / free software model. This would involve sharing our resources online for anyone to use to maximise the impact of our work. As a team we would be paid in other ways including:

To develop, test, design and publish accessible resources online
To promote those resources to relevant networks and organisations
To deliver training to support the use of resources for groups, institutions or families
To deliver workshops to our local groups of families and young people in alternative provision
To take part in relevant research partnerships with academic research projects

Financial Strategy

The work of Scavenger Labs has been a mixture of direct payment from schools and parents, partnership commissions, and applying for funding for larger ventures like the Todmorden Makery. JAMM labs continues to follow this model.

Leading local and community funding applications

Scavenger Labs C.I.C has infrastructure in place and a track record of undertaking successful projects via funding applications from community and lottery sources. For the JAMM Labs venture we are working with two tiers of funding.

Smaller-scale grants (£500–£5000): Local foundations and local government grants are suitable for us to develop and deliver workshops independently or with community partners in the area of youth and family engagement. This follows the funding model of the founding and development of Todmorden Makery.

Larger scale grants: We are working towards a larger grant to allow us some incubation time to put in place practices documentation of our practices and dissemination of resources via events, networking and online publication. Suitable funds identified include: Reaching Communities Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery and Network for Social Change.

Next steps

Two or three smaller scale grants which have a focus on a wide outreach and outreach events may help us with the process of demonstrating a need and an audience for this work.

Direct payment for delivery to participants

We undertake activities where we get direct payment from families for workshops, including: after school clubs, science themed holiday clubs and home educating families,

We aim to keep workshops affordable and ideally subsidise this aspect of our work through some of other funding strategies, in part by using some session as a way of evaluating our work.

Pros and Cons of direct delivery

Undertaking more work in this area would involve a shift in practice involving a greater focus on marketing and reaching, building and retaining an audience. This would involve extensive use of social media, networking, creating a marketing and outreach database. It could be a significant investment in time before seeing benefits. On the other hand, good basis for the benefits could be significant as an income stream independent of funding or partnership work offers us autonomy, shows a need for our work and therefore forms a foundation for wider funding and innovative partnership work.

Direct models of delivery

We are in the process of researching and trialling different methods of direct payment from families and partners for workshops. As such these notes are the basis for discussion and market research.

Home Education model: 2.5 hrs x 5/6 weeks. Weekly sessions. We are also interested in delivering double session thus effectively offering a full day for those travelling. We have undertaken a trial marketing attempt linking 2 workshops see here.

Holiday club model: 2-3 hour sessions. One paid practitioner with volunteer support. £25 per session x 8-10 kids

After school club model: 2 hour sessions. One paid practitioner with volunteer support. £20 per session x 10-12 kids

Funding through institutional partnerships

Another key area of development for JAMM Labs is to undertake more partnership work, especially oriented to collaborating with like-minded organisations to:

co-create printed and online learning resources and bespoke courses
deliver training and mentoring for partnership organisations

The scope of this work is outlined on our services page. More informal research is needed with potential partners and allies within universities, local government, and larger arts organisations in particular to gauge what our public offer should look like and a suitable pricing process.

Next steps could include:

undertaking a pilot project with a relatively mature project see here.
being involved in the planning process of a funding application with an institutional partner as a way of gaining greater insight.

Products

This section attempts to boil down the different aspects of our into recognisable products that we can try to offer to relevant partners and describe withing funding applications.

Workshops and Courses

1. One-off taster workshops – Self contained creative sessions to build interest in / recruit for 2)
1. Projects – 4–6 week learning programmes.

Costs depend on settings and funding models.

Corporate: 1) £200 - 2) £3000 Local Government: Community:

For workshop / project content see our project page.

On-site Lab delivery & facilitator training for partners

We come to you and delivery workshops to your participants at train your staff to continue the delivery with our resources.

Typical Product: Price needed.

6-week project-based courses (One 2 or 3 hour session per week)
Educator support:
- 1-day intensive training
- Access to peer mentoring network
- Ongoing support
- Optional kits for delivery

Educational resources production

We specialise in project-based learning kits including participant and facilitator resources produced and distributed as Open Educational Resources.

While the format of resources created will vary depending on the needs of the project the following two levels of production value can help guide discussion.

Prototype resources: Indicative price range - £500-£1000

Polished resources: Indicative price range - £2000 - £4000

The variation in price depends on he following factors.

Extent of facilitator notes and planning support needed
Number of formats needed for resources, web pages, word documents, printed documents & supporting cards
Use of external professionals for video production / photography
Layout work for the printing of resources.
Integration of academic research to support resources

Varied services for partners

We help partners needing support in areas of learning design, facilitation, documentation of projects.

See our services page for more partner focused information.

Marketing, Brand and Identity

Our marketing and brand identity for JAMM labs should reflect our ethos (see above). We have a strong focus on participant co-creation and participants being able to incorporate their interests and identity. We are playful but also productive, dealing with serious subjects but not taking ourselves too seriously. We engage with science and technology but we are not in thrall to it. Some ideas follow for brand identity.

Cute & cheeky branding with media-savvy animal, fruit and vegetable mascots
Game related imagery of pixel art / controllers

In terms of marketing, we hope our activities themselves and the resulting word of mouth will drive engagement with what we offer. However, in addition the following activities are relevant to kick start that process.

An announcement email list for marketing
Stalls and talks at relevant networking events
Social media presence, via sharing photos and video of activities, and links to resources, especially in Home Education groups.
A podcast exploring informal and community education.
A series of Linked in posts with content focused for academic partners, and links to relevant academic blogs and publications.

Timeline

By October 2025: Launch website outlining Jam Lab vision, draft business model, and pilot project ideas
By Dec 2025:
- Establish advisory group to advise in particular about the business model aspect.
- Price a prototype educational package
- Price a professional OER package (e.g. game-making), and seek partners that may develop / fund it.
By Feb 2026:
- Apply for local funding for 2 pilot project delivery, each with 3 taster sessions and 5 weekly workshops and a showcase event.
By Apr 2026:
- Run 2 pilot programmes with local participants (mix of Home Ed and KS2/3 young people)
- Identify partnerships and apply for funding to develop individual strand projects
- Prepare feasibility for larger scale funding bid (Lottery for example may pay for 2 x 0.5 project workers over 2-3 years)
Ongoing:
- Keep delivering projects locally and reflect on the joint delivery with the business model in mind in a pilot process
- Build a sustainable resource library
- Evaluate business model through local delivery
- Reflect and iterate through advisor feedback and funding cycles

JAMM Labs is focused on informal, inclusive and project based approaches to learning. It is a financial and marketing vehicle for delivery of workshops and courses, to under take research and development, and to disseminate resources on-line and via networking.

Related work within Scavenger Labs is on-going and is fed by JAMM-Labs activity (and vice-versa). While this work is described in more detail on our Ventures page outlined below.

Steve leads Noisy Toys, delivering STEAM-focused workshops, events and installations.

STEAM-based educational workshops
Formats include:
- Individual sessions/workshops at schools
- Week-long creative residencies at museums
- Installations at events and festivals

Mick Chesterman also undertakes work on a freelance basis in the areas of:

media production
community / well being events and activities (e.g. Todmorden Makery)
group facilitation and training work for partners

Costs and payment structure.

The above work is relevant to this business plan in that there are some shared costs involved between these freelance ventures and the core costs of the C.I.C.

Main costs:

Rent at Noisy Toys workshop
Insurance
Marketing, and web hosting costs

Job related costs:

Transport & vehicle costs
Equipment for workshops / courses - laptops, micro controllers, motors etc.

In open stages we propose that 10% to 20% of our gross income for JAMM Labs projects

Context and motivations driving this business plan (1–3 Years)

This section is included as an addition to our business plan to outline the motivations driving this shift in activities.

Steve

Engage young people in hands-on learning through:
- Drop-in events
- Themed workshops
- Interactive installations
Enable paid-for R&D and creative experimentation
Make delivery more manageable with team support
Work publicly as an artist and researcher
Expand the range of workshops offered

Mick

Promote mental wellbeing through creative projects
Reach children and families outside formal schooling
Lead participatory and experimental initiatives
Deepen practice in learning design
Co-create with families (e.g. Gil) and communities
Build an independent research partnership platform
Develop further as a media artist and live event facilitator
Mentor new practitioners with structural support

Participant Motivations (imagined)

Wellbeing (in particular mental health)
Self-expression and agency
Employability skills for a changing world of work
Political and social literacy
Environmental awareness and agency