Fi Da Silva Adams, the founder of Swindon and Wiltshire’s leading performing arts company for children and young people, Revolution Performing Arts, has won an award for Outstanding Contribution to the Community.
Fi, who attended the gala awards dinner for the South West Great British Business and Community Awards, said:
“I was overwhelmed to be chosen given the amazing work done in communities across the South West by all of the shortlisted organisations. I can’t quite believe that this has happened and I’d like to thank my amazing team who support hundreds of children across Swindon and beyond every single week.”
Fi, who lives in Wanborough, has built the highly successful Revolution Performing Arts and its sister company, Rapport CIC, both of which have strong social goals. She set up the company in 2007 as a drama group for toddlers and pre-school-age children. She took this step after a long career in performing arts in the town.
It quickly expanded to become a performing arts company for children of all ages and was the first organisation of its kind to bring inclusive performing arts after-school clubs to the Swindon area.
Today it runs more than 1,140 performing arts sessions a year for children from a diverse range of socio-economic backgrounds and stages five public shows across its annual calendar. In all more than 400 local children or young people attend sessions every week, with nearly 5,000 children attending the RPA Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) Programme in Swindon and Wiltshire.
RPA’s sister organisation, Rapport Community Interest Company (CIC), is a not-for-profit organisation specifically aimed at young people aged 11-18. Its mission is to explore all forms of performing arts, including drama, singing and dance as well as ‘behind the scenes’ arts such as design, tech and stage management. Rapport offers free places for young people affected by domestic abuse.
The judges of the awards said of Fi that she was ‘making a huge impact in multiple ways and providing a much-needed safe place away from abuse.’
Having experienced a challenging start in life herself, Fi is a keen advocate of the power of the arts to support young people to express themselves in a way that is empowering.
The South-West Business and Community Awards ceremony took place on Thursday 1 February at the Doubletree Hilton. Other Swindon winners included Shani Moore of Dash Couriers who won Female Entrepreneur of the Year and HR specialist Rachel Weaven who won the title of Networker of the Year.
