Evaluations

An evaluation of The Irene Taylor Trust’s Sounding Out programme 2016-2018

Sounding Out is a music traineeship which provides former prisoners with longer-term opportunities upon their release, to bridge the gap between inside and outside prison. The evaluation takes a qualitative approach to explore the views and experiences of participants, staff and family members to understand if and how Sounding Out ... read on →

Authors Laura Caulfield, Andrew Jolly, Rachel Massie (Institute for Community Research & Development, University of Wolverhampton)

Published March 2019

Artform Music

Organisation The Irene Taylor Trust (Music in Prisons)

Participant type Male Adult Ex offenders

Sample size: 10

An independent evaluation of Making for Change: skills in a fashion training and manufacturing workshop

Making for Change Fashion Training and Manufacturing Workshop is a partnership between HM Prison Service and London College of Fashion. Making for Change takes an innovative approach in prison, linked to improving the engagement of women in prison industries by providing training in fashion production skills and accrediting participants with ... read on →

Authors Laura Caulfield, Kerry Curtis, Ella Simpson (Bath Spa University)

Published August 2018

Artform Design

Organisations HMP Downview, London College of Fashion   Project venue HMP Downview

Participant type Female Adult Offenders

Sample size: 14

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 →

Authors Richard McHugh, Hannah Smithson (Manchester Metropolitan University)

Published January 2018

Artform Theatre

Organisation Odd Arts   Project venues Barton Moss Secure Unit, HMP Manchester, Langley House Trust resettlement centres

Participant type Male Ex offenders

Sample size: 50

Exploring Good Vibrations projects with vulnerable and challenging women in prison

This research involved 26 women who had successfully completed a Good Vibrations project, finding that:

  • for women in prison, taking part in a Good Vibrations project can reduce anger, worry, and levels of unhappiness, and improve social skills
  • reductions in anger, worry, and unhappiness may be sustained in the weeks ... read on →

    Author Laura Caulfield (Bath Spa University)

    Published December 2015

    Artform Music

    Organisation Good Vibrations

    Participant type Female Adult Offenders

  • The Arts of Desistance: Evaluation of the Koestler Trust Arts Mentoring Programme for Former Prisoners

    This report presents and discusses the findings of an evaluation of an arts-based mentoring scheme that is aimed at prolonging and enhancing desistance from crime through providing former prisoners with opportunities to continue engaging with the arts after release. The evaluation focused both on the implementation and effectiveness of the ... read on →

    Author Leonidas Cheliotis (London School of Economics)

    Published October 2014

    Artforms Creative Writing, Multi-Arts, Music, Visual Arts

    Organisation Koestler Trust   Project venues Parc, Peterborough

    Participant type Male and Female Adult Ex offenders

    Sample size: 60

    Good Vibrations: health and wellbeing of older offenders

    The purpose of this research project was to explore the older offender population and there engagement with the Good Vibration project.  The research found that:

  • Older offenders also experience the same emotional benefits as the general prison population
  • Older offender’s comments on additional benefits of the Good Vibrations project for ... read on →

    Authors Laura Caulfield, Dean Wilkinson (Bath Spa University; University of Worcester)

    Published 2014

    Artform Music

    Organisation Good Vibrations

    Participant type Male Older Offenders

  • Final evaluation of the Artist in Residence at HMP Grendon

    This report presents findings from the second half of a four year art residency at HMP Grendon. Through analysis of observational data, interviews, focus groups, and assessments of social climate with prisoners at HMP Grendon, this report concludes that the residency has promoted a number of positive outcomes. There is ... read on →

    Author Laura Caulfield (Bath Spa University)

    Published August 2014

    Artform Visual Arts

    Project venue Grendon

    Participant type Male Adult Offenders

    Women at the HeArt Evaluation Report

    Women at the HeArtwas a Thames Valley Partnership project, funded by Arts Council England,  The Monument Trust and Thames Valley Probation, building on the organisation’s experience of using the arts with vulnerable groups. Aims:

  • Creatively empower vulnerable women by offering participatory arts sessions
  • Embed good creative practice into support services ... read on →

    Author Alison Leverett-Morris (Thames Valley Partnership)

    Published February 2014

    Artforms Drama, Mixed Media, Visual Arts

    Organisation Thames Valley Partnership   Project venues Alana House Womens Centre, Crisis at the Old Fire Station, Elizabeth Fry Approved Premises

    Participant type Female Adult Vulnerable women

  • Musical Pathways: an exploratory study of young people in the criminal justice system, engaged with a creative music programme

    118 young people engaged in a participatory music programme across eight youth justice settings in England and Wales. The research objectives were to [1] investigate meanings and values young offenders attribute to music, their relationships with music, and its significance to their health, wellbeing, lifestyle and social status; [2] observe ... read on →

    Authors Norma Daykin, Nick de Viggiani, Yvonne Moriaty, Paul Pilkington (University of the West of England )

    Published January 2014

    Artform Music

    Organisations Superact, University of the West of England

    Participant type Male and Female Juvenile Young People at risk

    Sounding Out - Jim Cartwright

    The report followed Music in Prisons as they ran a pilot ‘through the gate’ project which, through music, aimed to provide longer-term rehabilitative opportunities to previous project participants in order to help bridge the gap between life inside and out prison. The key aims were to assist reintegration; impact on ... read on →

    Published 2013

    Artform Music

    Participant type Male and Female Adult Ex offenders

    Sample size: 7

    The Melting Pot: Evaluation

    A three-year creative writing and mentoring project working at the DSPD Unit, HMP Frankland. The report shows how the project contributed to the overall well-being of men in the Unit and contributed to the rehabilitation programme. Section 2 includes a Replicability Model and the development of performance indicators and an ... read on →

    Author Caroline O'Keefe (Hallam Centre for Community Justice, Sheffield Hallam University; Sheffield Hallam University)

    Published December 2013

    Artform Creative Writing

    Organisation Writers in Prison Network   Project venue Frankland

    Participant type Male Adult Offenders

    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 →

    Authors Josie Billington, Jude Robinson (University of Liverpool)

    Published 2012

    Artform Creative Writing

    Organisations National Personality Disorder Team, The Reader Organisation, University of Liverpool   Project venue HMP Low Newton

    Participant type Female Adult Offenders

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