Bursary Policy

To help as many people as possible benefit from our work, Writing West Midlands can offer Free Tickets to our events and activities. These include:  

• Spark Young Writers Groups  

• Workshops & Short Courses  

• National Writers Conference  

• Birmingham Literature Festival Events & Activities  

Free Tickets are funded by donations from Writing West Midlands’ staff, Trustees and Patrons and from individual writers and from many other individuals who want to support our work.   

  
Eligibility  

We can only give Free Tickets you if you Work, Live or Study in the West Midlands region. This region includes these local authority areas:   
  
Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Herefordshire, Sandwell, Shropshire, Solihull, Staffordshire, Stoke on Trent, Telford & Wrekin, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wolverhampton, Worcestershire  

We don’t need any official documents or financial proof, but we would need to know that you are in one of these categories:   

• You are receiving some form of Government assistance, for example Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Working Tax Credits or Pension Credit,  

or  

• If you are a student, and you are benefiting from financial support from your university or college,  
    

or  

• If you are applying for a child, the child is eligible for Pupil Premium or Free School Meals, or the child’s family receives Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Working Tax Credits or Pension Credit,  

or   

• If you are self-employed, you can give information confirming that your household income is less than £18K per year or that there are other reasons why you cannot afford to pay.  

Please note that we can only give: 

• One Short-Course per financial year (April-March) 

• One Workshop per financial year (April-March) 

• Two Spark Young Writers Group annual places per academic year (September-July) 

However, we can give Partially Funded Tickets (50% of ticket price) to the same recipient multiple times throughout the financial year (April – March).  

The same eligibility criteria and requirements apply for partially funded-tickets (see steps 1 and 2 below), please just let us know that you require a Partially Funded Ticket when you contact us. 

As part of the bursary application process, recipients are required to provide feedback on their experience after attending the event, course, or workshop via a short email survey. This feedback is essential not only for us to evaluate the impact of our support but also to help us improve future offerings and attract further funding. We may also use elements of your feedback in our marketing efforts (anonymously). If feedback is not submitted within a reasonable timeframe, we will be unable to consider you for future bursary opportunities. 

How to get Free Tickets    

If you need a Free Ticket for one of our Spark Young Writers Groups or other events and activities for children and young people, please tell us that you qualify for a free place during the registration process. See Spark Young Writers website for details of all our groups.    

If you need a Free Ticket for the Birmingham Literature Festival, the National Writers Conference, our Workshops & Short Courses or our other work, please: 

1: Send us a statement (between 100-300 words) describing how attending the event/course will benefit you.  

This will help us to assess applications fairly and ensure our Free Tickets supports those who will gain the most from the opportunity.  

2: Please confirm that you Live, Work or Study in the West Midlands and tell us your briefly about your financial situation (for instance, if you receive financial support).  
  

Please send this note to info@writingwestmidlands.org as soon as possible. Our events and activities often sell out, and we can only offer Free Tickets if tickets are available.   

We will let you know as soon as possible if you are eligible for a Free Ticket / Partially Funded Ticket and if tickets are still available.   

We will never share your information and if we are able to give you a Free Ticket / Partially Funded Ticket we don’t tell anyone that this is the case – you will simply be one of many people enjoying and benefitting from our events and activities.   

If you have any questions regarding Free Tickets, please e-mail us on info@writingwestmidlands.org.