SABA

Supporting talented young people and entrepreneurs

SABA started as the Society for the Advancement of Black Achievement by a group of students at the then Middlesex Polytechnic (now University) in the mid-1980’s. Whilst obstacles holding back descendants of the Windrush Generation were well established by this time, the early SABA members identified strategies to overcome these obstacles through creative art forms that traditionally emerged across grassroots Black communities.


SABA identified how the growth potential of Black art forms could contribute to the regeneration of deprived communities and enable true social mobility. Through education and training we ascertained how wider communities could also benefit from this growth, whilst ensuring that Black contributors are fairly rewarded.

Throughout the 1990’s, SABA went on to provide project management support to community led organisations and individuals committed to delivering educational, arts and social services. In 1999, we formally established a charitable organisation called the Society for the Advancement of Black Arts. This Charity focused on the education and development of society using Black artforms as the basis of its activities, and supporting individuals from all backgrounds to be able to use these art forms to attain their true potential.


SABA Communications Ltd pursued commercial strategies to support wider community achievement. From beginnings in office equipment and computer trading, SABA Communications Ltd went on to lay foundations in several genres of the UK’s grassroots creative sectors, known as the Hidden Creative Economy or HiCrEc.

In 2002, SABA received the first of several awards as the Emerging Company of the Year, and this was repeated in 2005 as the Best Creative Company by the London Development Agency.


In 2003, SABA officially launched the concept of the Hidden Creative Economy, aka the HiCrEc. This recognised the existence of a trajectory that art forms follow after emerging from grassroots communities without mainstream support or recognition, through to becoming commercially sponsored and sustainable.


Between 2004 – 2006, SABA held a number of record breaking UK UNSIGNED Finals around the country. As its flagship project, UK UNSIGNED sought to provide platforms for aspiring artists to showcase their talents and skills. Over these years, we have helped them find pathways towards longer term successes and careers. At the very least they have developed transferrable skillsets, where they can still apply aspects of their talents into opportunities that may not have otherwise been available to them.

By 2010, SABA established community broadcast centres known as Your Digital Network (YDN). This started in Brent, and now covers as far south as Brighton, across London, and up north to Milton Keynes, Bedford and Birmingham.


As we come through 2020 and face the “new normal” because of Coronavirus, we are continuing to meet the challenges and opportunities that are presenting themselves in the expanding digital world. Our charitable side now operates a dedicated education service with a focus on providing accredited learning. Its beneficiaries are primarily excluded young people, who have been unable to find places within mainstream institutions.


Our commercial side continues to be at the forefront of helping people to attain real social mobility through creativity and enterprise, and to be the catalyst of change to meet the original aspirations of SABA in the 1980’s.

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