Evaluations
BROAD: (Building Resilience and Overcoming Adversity through Dance & Drama) Research and Evaluation Report
Building Resilience and Overcoming Adversity through Dance & Drama (BROAD) is an innovative dance theatre pilot programme designed for vulnerable groups in prisons, secure children's centres and secure hospitals, co-created by Odd Arts company and Company Chameleon. Its innovation derives from the combination of theatre and dance, underpinned by training ... read on →
Research report: HMP/YOI Winchester Applied Theatre pilot 2018
This report was produced by researchers at University of Winchester (Applied Criminology). It details the findings of an evaluation of a pilot project which was designed and delivered by BearFace Theatre CIC and funded by Hampshire Cultural Trust which was aimed at using a new Applied Theatre intervention to impact ... read on →
Applied Performance Arts Interventions within Justice Services: Moving 'Forward' Toward an Integrated Sustainable Evaluative Approach
This report evaluates the impact of a resettlement programme using forum theatre and therapeutic creative delivery in prisons, adult resettlement centres and secure units. It focuses on the impact good partnership has on effective projects as well as the need for long-term sustained work in prisons to ensure the highest ... read on →
Creative Leadership and Forum Theatre: An evaluation report for Odd Arts
The report evaluates one of Odd Art’s creative programme that uses applied and forum theatre to increase leadership and skills. The following key outcomes of the Odd Arts Creative Leadership programme all demonstrate factors related to confidence, self-awareness and self-presentation, and, therefore, skills and capacities required to show creative leadership ... read on →
The Lullaby Project: areas of change and mechanisms of impact
Creative projects and their potential towards positive psychosocial change have been consistently evidenced, particularly with vulnerable groups. The Lullaby Project (developed by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in New York) has now been implemented in UK through two pilot experiences where the Irene Taylor Trust (who led the initiative), brought ... read on →
Evaluation of the use of 'Good Vibrations' percussion courses to improve motivation to change and treatment readiness with convicted sexual offenders embarking on treatment programmes
Previous research has highlighted the benefits of implementing music-centred interventions in correctional settings. The present study used a mixed method approach to explore prisoners’ experiences of a week-long Indonesian percussion music course, introduced in a UK sex offender prison to enhance motivation and readiness for change pre-treatment. Study one examined ... read on →
Write to be Heard: Supporting Offender Learning through Creative Writing
The report explores the impact of a creative writing programme developed to engage ‘hard to reach’ learners in prison. The mechanism was a creative writing competition, incorporating a schedule of workshops in 28 prisons, encouraging entrants to write pieces for broadcast on National Prison Radio (NPR). Using qualitative and quantitative ... read on →
Re-imagining futures: Exploring arts interventions and the process of desistance
Carried out by Northumbria University and Bath Spa University, this report highlights examples of how the arts can support positive changes linked to personal agency, efficacy and identity, which are linked to the highly individualised journey of desistance from criminal behaviour. Key findings show that participation in arts activities enables ... read on →
The experience of ‘Journey Woman’ from the perspective of the participants
Using theoretical frameworks such as CBT, role theory, social learning theory and narrative therapy, Forensic Psychologist Rebecca Day explores women offenders’ experience of Geese Theatre Company’s one week project ‘Journey Woman’, which was delivered four times at HMP Foston during 2007/08. read on →
Supporting employability and personal effectiveness through the arts: international evaluation of this European Project by Jo Cursley
Supporting employability and personal effectiveness (SEPE) is the name of a qualification which was first conceived by the University of Exeter, developed and accredited by Edexcel and piloted through Superact by funding from Leonardo Lifelong Learning Project and the Medicor Foundation in five European countries. The arts were used as ... read on →
An Evaluation of a Pilot Study of a Literature-Based Intervention with Women in Prison
This study investigated whether ‘Get Into Reading’, a literature-based intervention, which had been established in other custodial contexts and non-custodial mental health settings in the UK transposed to a female prison; HMP Low Newton, and whether any of the benefits identified in custodial and non-custodial contexts elsewhere were reported by ... read on →
Musical Learning and Desistance from Crime: The case of a 'Good Vibrations' Javanese Gamelan project with young offenders
This paper discusses new empirical evidence for a positive relationship between musical learning and desistance from crime. On investigating the learning processes occurring within a Javanese gamelan project in a Young Offenders Institution, parallels between musical learning processes and the development of certain attributes linked to desistance from crime emerged. ... read on →
