Our Story

Altru’s story began in 2005, with a small idea about offering creative opportunities to young people outside of formal education. The company founder, Kate Cotterell, was teaching in Knowsley and struggling with the demands placed on her pupils by a curriculum that didn’t fit their needs or offer them the chance to achieve. She wanted to create something that would allow children and young people to learn, grow and develop outside of the constraints of exams and formal education – and Altru was born!

Our first project was all about Healthy Eating (Jamie Oliver and his campaign against turkey twizzlers was big news back in 2005!) and we were commissioned by Liverpool’s Healthy Schools Team to deliver the project in a number of primary schools. More work followed by Knowsley Healthy Schools, Sefton’s air pollution team and various Credit Unions – all of whom could see the value of using creativity and drama to deliver their messages.

We moved from one project to the next – meeting needs for teachers and pupils and developing our practice as a team of creative professionals.

In 2008 we were commissioned by Knowsley Council to be the creative partner on their Cardio Vascular Disease programme of work – our largest piece of work to date at that point.

In 2009, we worked extensively on the government’s Creative Partnerships programme and this piece of work across multiple schools allowed us to develop our skills further and begin building versions of the projects and programmes we still offer today. At the same time, we began working with Knowsley Council’s Arts Development team and spent the next 10 years managing the youth theatre programme for the borough.

Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength – still with the same mission and values and always working with and for the young people who are at the heart of what we do. In the last decade we have developed and delivered a range of performance and workshop formats and options including big pieces of work with Clarion Housing Group, Croxteth Hall and Country Park, Torus Foundation, Bolton at Home, State of Mind Sport, Liverpool Council Community Cohesion Team, Stop Loan Sharks, Curious Minds, One Knowsley, Warrington Council, Cheshire Police, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Ambassador’s Theatre Group.

We’ve also delivered thousands of PSHE and curriculum based workshops and performances – and we now offer our own creative programme each year which includes anti-bullying, online safety, mental health and drugs and alcohol awareness performances, as well as classic tales retold for a modern audience and workshops on everything from Roald Dahl to The Romans.