Engage, Develop, Progress - our 3 stage delivery model
Our projects unlock a young person’s untapped potential.
Our projects support the development of a young person’s life skills, redefine their sense of purpose, provide the confidence and motivation to take that next step, make that next big decision.
Our work changes lives for the better. This is how.
Engage
We aim to Inspire and engage young people in fun, high-quality creative activities at our centre and locations across the city and county. So, we run creative outreach sessions
• in settings such as schools and prisons, and
• in communities such as New Parks and Beaumont Leys, and
• with specific groups of young people with special educational needs or disabilities, or
• those at risk of poor life outcomes such as young offenders or looked after children.
In a typical (non-COVID) year, we engage about 1200 young people in our creative activities.
Develop
We run longer term creative projects which facilitate in-depth learning, support wellbeing, and develop personal and social skills.
This is the core of our work: we get to know a young person and their interests, and to understand the best way to make them feel better about themselves, the world around them and their future. This process works through the positive relationships built by our staff with participants, with most work taking place at our arts centre.
We normally put on about 22 such sessions across a normal working week. These sessions will cover arts, music, cooking and dance and will all be young person led and expertly supported by our youth arts workers.
Progress
We support young people to progress, through involvement in performances, exhibitions, mentoring, volunteering, work experience and creative enterprise.
Our projects are designed to recognise and record young people’s progress. Meaningful personalised outcomes include
• performing live music;
• public exhibitions of creative work;
• selling artwork;
• volunteering in our café;
• working on life goals with a mentor; and
• support into volunteering, work experience and employment.
We aim to support up to 90 young people every year in this way and we know that this level of engagement makes them feel more confident about going into further education, applying for a job or living independently.