PRODUCER

Supporting London-based company EMERGE(ncy) Party to develop and deliver their first Arts Council England funded project, BECOMING.

The project engaged:

• King Solomon School, Westminster – young people aged 11-14
• Trinity Academy, Brixton – young people aged 11-14
• Spotlight Youth Hub, Langdon Park – young people aged 16-18 from Langdon Park School
• Compass Collective, meeting at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts – a group of refugees aged 16-25 (additional funding from London Youth ‘Young Creators’ funding)

The project enabled participants to:

• be supported to fulfill their creative potential, in workshops led by theatre makers, designers, film and audio producers, and writers. All sessions were led by theatre makers and other creatives.
• in partnership with our scientific researcher, learn about adolescent brain development and have greater awareness of the changes that they are going through. Madeline Payne worked with each group, planning sessions each week with our facilitators to deepen engagement opportunities with the topics, in a creative way.
• see adolescence as a period of opportunity, building their sense of self and harness their ability to make positive decisions. The sense of self was explored throughout the workshops and themes of visions of the future.
• see how they can use creativity as a means of self-expression and as a way of growing their sense of self. Young people were able to creatively explore these themes and produce creative outputs (film, audio, performance) that promoted self-expression.
• enjoy the process and form lasting friendships. All young people were able to make connections within their groups. A future development will be to bring these groups together.
• form a peer support group that they self-regulate. The ‘safe space’ created within the sessions was outside of usual ‘teaching’ spaces and gave young people a voice and decision making power.
• feel a stronger sense of agency and capacity to make a difference in their communities. These themes continued throughout the sessions, promoting a sense of agency and confidence within the young people.

A local artist assistant was recruited for each of the Trinity and King Solomon groups, who have lived experiences of these communities, receiving support and mentoring from the team. The Compass project recruited an assistant from one of their previous participants.

Two films and audio recordings were produced, and the projects were documented through creative photography. In addition to the in-person activity, our Digital Producer captured and documented the projects through an e-newsletter as another creative output.

Planning is underway for further development of this project and a further funding application to Arts Council England.