Central to our work is our desire to empower each participant. By encouraging young people and teachers to be creative we aim to help them see things from multiple perspectives but also to have their own ideas valued. Very often our work involves young people and adults working together as peers. Collaboration is an important factor in all of our work. Our projects are designed in partnership with key stakeholders to ensure sustainability and scalability.
All of our creative programmes include raising aspirations as a theme. We ensure this happens by offering experiences outside of the school environments, by getting young people to make decisions and take a lead. By giving participants choice about how their projects are designed, developed and run.
An example of raising aspirations in our projects include:
Girly Girls and Macho Men
Working with two separate cohorts of young people at Billericay School.
Boys: The most challenging and disruptive boys from Year 8, worked with us to explore their behaviour and find value in themselves and their education, recognizing their unique abilities and challenging their own stereotypes.
Girls: Year 10 girls with low aspirations and poor attendance worked on a series of challenges, including an army assault course and a day interviewing professional women. We then equipped them with the skills to conceive, organise and host an Inspirational Women’s Conference to a packed Chelmsford Civic Theatre.
Video about Girly Girls and Macho Men Project.