Leading it… Our Way
Finding our voices
“Leading it …Our Way” is an exciting initiative, funded through BIG Lottery, which is opening up a range of new developments and challenges for DIY Theatre Company. Over a period of three years (2011 – 2013) DIY company members will be running a total of ten Arts Award projects with young people with learning difficulties aged between 11 and 25 from across Greater Manchester.
The “Leading it…Our Way” programme is all about opening up new opportunities for young people with learning difficulties. Young people will:
- Gain an Arts Award
- Develop leadership skills and experiences
- Develop life skills such as communication and decision-making
- Increase their confidence, sense of achievement and ambition
- Evidence their achievements in the form of portfolios, which will support some to access further training or volunteering opportunities
In the last year, DIY has delivered many new Arts Award projects – in Lancasterian School, at New Park School, with So Many Words Theatre Company and at Irlam and Caddishead Youth club.
Anna, Rob and Ang worked with Sue at Lancasterian School in Didsbury, which is a specialist Communication School dedicated to teaching and supporting children with a range of physical and medical disabilities. They worked with 13 young people in Key Stage 3 who all achieved their Bronze Arts Award.
I feel more confident to use drama now having seen how it is done. The group now have a better understanding of what leadership means as a result of doing activities that demonstrated leadership in action.
Tim Jones – Teacher at Lancasterian School in Didsbury
DIY facilitators led activities that encouraged imagination, creativity and personal reflection.
Joan and Jenny worked at the Youth Centre in Irlam and Caddishead where they had a large group – around 25 young people each time. They used drama to promote confidence and self-esteem and develop team-building skills. They led lots of drama games, made newspaper costumes and made dramatic recipes!
Having Jenny and Joan coming in has meant that our young people have learnt to be more sociable. It has made them come together more as a group. We try to do circle time but it is hard to keep them focussed and we’ve never done it for as long as DIY have.
Fay Flatt – Arts Officer for Salford
It was fun being creative and we worked good as teams.
Participant – Irlam and Cadishead Youth Club
Angela, Rob and Jen are delivering the Silver Arts Award to a group of young actors at So Many Words Theatre Company in Eccles. They have done lots of exciting exercises to make the award accessible and relevant to the group. For their Unit 2 they are devising a series of drama workshops which they will plan and deliver as a group.
To me it’s about learning new things, learning from artists …….. things I never knew before. Bronze was easier, and doing Silver has been quite challenging but really good.
Pam – a member of So Many Words
I feel having DIY in to deliver the Silver Arts Award has given a wonderful focus to those of our members who have a real passion for pursuing the arts as a profession. The project has encouraged a lot of what the group already do and enjoy – favourite art forms such as drama, dance, singing, music – but has opened it right up to explore the arts in the contexts of research, performance and how a young person’s practice and commitment can open doors in the professional arts world.
Jamie Patterson - Artistic Director of So Many Words
As a group of facilitators, we meet every Friday and plan and evaluate all of the outreach programmes that we are currently delivering.
We create new ways to deliver drama games and we are working together to explore many different aspects of leadership and what that means to different people.
