Praxis August 2005 Volume 27 Number 4 Art Works: re-engaging with learning, training or work In the past 12 months, there has been much discussion and project-based work both nationally and at a state level seeking to address the issue of education and training for young people, who for various reasons, have disengaged from formal education. In looking at a number of programs currently running in Australian states and territories a common feature began to emerge. The successful programs or programs with strong outcomes have used training through various arts forms and popular culture to address the issue of educational re-engagement. But, how do arts-based programs provide participants with a greater understanding of the options available to young people who are currently not in education, training and/or employment to enter or re-enter learning or earning and gain the self-confidence to continue along a recognised educational pathway? Arts as Possible Pathways Sharon Hogan, Associate Lecturer - Drama within the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology, has just completed a report titled Arts Pathways. This research was undertaken in partnership with Arts Queensland and the Department of Employment and Training. It is linked to the Education and Training Reforms for the Future and Queensland Government's Creative Queensland cultural policy. The Arts Pathways Initiative uses arts programs to re-engage marginalised young people who are at-risk of disengaging from formal education, training and employment programs. Innovative and practical strategies and partnerships that create better options for young people through involvement with the arts have been documented within Arts Pathways: A Road Map to Engaging with Young People. Over 120 young people participated in a range of arts experiences and workshops including photography, image creation and manipulation using multimedia software and cameras, painting and drawing, traditional crafts and arts, screen printing, circus workshops, writing and recording music and lyrics. They produced textiles, artworks, music, film, posters and clothing that were showcased in their local community. Many of the participants in Arts Pathways were not ready for work or in a position to commit to longer-term training. Some participants were homeless, others finishing studies at an alternate school setting and for others social and emotional issues were preventing them from moving into future training and work. The research and evaluation was grounded in the practice and experiences of the stakeholders during the delivery of the program. In total, over 70 semi-structured interviews were conducted with a cross section of stakeholders including TAFE tutors, program co-ordinators, youth workers, arts workers, service providers and 40 of the young people who participated in Arts Pathways. The research identified critical success factors in the development and delivery of mentoring or re-engagement strategies for key segments of the target group. The research focused on monitoring and evaluating:
Program management: partnerships, recruitment of participants, staffing, resources Program curriculum: skills and knowledge, processes, participant evaluation. Participant engagement: achievement, attitude, attendance, outcomes. Sharon Hogan commented on how relationships and trust were integral to the program s success. After conducting over thirty interviews with young people participating Arts Pathways and analysing the transcripts, I was surprised how relationships and particularly the rebuilding and establishment of trust effected the engagement of the participants and dominated their concerns. They were concerned with how they would be accepted, spoken to and allowed choice within the program. They wanted to feel welcomed and be treated with respect. This is something that they did not feel in their previous school experience. They were fearful of entering a new institutional setting. One strategy that did work was the offering of workshops and arts experience in young people spaces prior to the program moving to new and unfamiliar ground. Sharon Hogan noticed during the research that for many participants it was an emotional journey. They needed support on three levels, emotionally, artistically and logistically. A three-strand approach to staffing enabled programs to meet these needs. In many cases, the youth worker supported the emotional journey as well as providing practical assistance with transport and accommodation. I was constantly reminded that marginalised young people who have withdrawn from work or schooling are not lessable but frequently without family support and financially under resourced. Links to other support services such as counselling and emergency needs were required to maintain the engagement of young people. Partnerships with youth workers significantly impacted on the success of any program. It is not enough to ask an artist to run some workshops for a group of young people. More support is needed, more planning and clearer shared objectives. Arts based programs cannot ignore the significant cognitive learning that can occur when young people are engaged in a creative way. How this process will be scaffolded to include all young people with a range of abilities and confidence with a particular art form needs to be considered. The Arts Pathways program raised important issues regarding the design of programs and the importance of contact time. Attraction, recruitment and retention of participants emerged as major challenges in several pilot sites. Few participants expressed interest in continuing with arts related training pathways. Eight-week programs were not long enough to build skills, competencies or the confidence to enable participants to move into arts related work. Instead, eight-week programs exposed young people to a range of options and possible future training in arts related fields. To encourage more participants to move into arts related industry or training, stronger industry links would need to be made during the program implementation. Programs would need to be longer, possibly repeat or cycle and link to work related competencies and include supported work or work experience. Arts Pathways provided a valuable first entry point or first step towards re-engaging with the community, learning and building their personal confidence and awareness of other pathways. Arts as Risky Business A leading light is this area of educational re-engagement through the arts is an Australian Research Council Risky Business Research Project in Victoria. The Risky
Business research brings together three areas of expertise and interest: creative arts, education and criminology headed by Associate Professor Angela O'Brien, Kate Donelan and Kiersten Coulter at The University of Melbourne. The Risky Business research project is an interdisciplinary study of the use of the creative arts as an intervention for young people at risk. Over the period of the Risky Business research project, nine creative arts programs were established and investigated in three broad geographical areas in Victoria, Australia: Footscray and Parkville, Melbourne inner suburbs; Dandenong, an outer suburb in south-east Melbourne; and Bendigo, a regional town north of Melbourne. Each of these areas has a low socio-economic profile, moderate to high unemployment and a high proportion of marginalised youth exhibiting a complex combination of risk factors. The Risky Business arts based programs ran between three and twenty weeks and operated in partnership with local youth service providers and juvenile justice centres. Young people were recruited through the partner youth support agencies and participation was voluntary and flexible. Young people participating in the programs became artists in training with the opportunity to develop a range of arts based skills through experiential workshops. The arts programs were based around participation in creative writing, music, visual and performing arts programs led by professional community artists. All programs culminated in a publication, public performance or exhibition. As an outcome of the research The University Of Melbourne is hosting Risky Business Symposium - the creative arts as an intervention activity for young people at risk on Friday October 21 & Saturday October 22, 2005. Getting ARTSsmart ARTSsmart is an initiative of the South Australian Department of Education and Arts South Australia, triggered the development of a number of projects across the state. ARTSsmart strategy has three Key Outcomes: 1. Engagement of young People in Arts & Education 2. Partnerships between Arts educators and Arts Practitioners 3. Arts Experiences for Learning throughout Life. Makin it Peachey! was a performance-based project that celebrated and demonstrated ARTSsmart in action. The ARTSsmart Peachey Belt project included a series of theatre and performing arts based workshops with professional artists and community workers, for at risk young people aged 14 to 18 to explore contemporary issues affecting their lives. The project sought to inspire a new interest and engagement with learning for young people who are at risk of leaving school. Schools have been encouraged to develop alternative Arts Based learning programs to support the participants in their reengagement with learning. Makin it Peachey! was a 5-month project. The project targeted young people who had already become disengaged or who were at risk of becoming disengaged from schools and learning. Helen Bock from Carclew Youth Arts Centre said, this proved to be a challenge as once they had already dropped out it was hard to find them. Eventually by working through the schools, Smithfield Plains HS and Fremont Elizabeth City HS, we spoke to young people direct. Makin it Peachey! primarily focussed on making links for young people to finding a pathway of re-engagement to education. Helen describes it
as a retention-based project using the Arts as a tool to engage with these young people. Helen Bock described how Makin it Peachey! came about, Urban Myth and Carclew Youth Arts Centre collaborated on this project basically because we had both offered Glenn Hayden a job at the same time. The perfect solution was Urban Myth coming on board as a creative partner on Makin it Peachey! and as such take on the artistic direction of the project with Carclew being the Project Managers. A community performance titled School WARZ was performed by the group to a gathering of 130 plus on Friday 18 th March at the Playford Civic Centre as part of the 2005 Come Out Festival. The project demonstrated ARTSsmart through a focus on Partnerships. Partnerships between arts educators, arts practitioners and community organisations and services. In May 2004 a community based reference group was set up to advise and support the implementation of a Carclew Youth Arts Centre, pilot project in the Peachey Belt area of Northern Metropolitan Adelaide. The reference group was identified by their direct links to and understanding of the community in which the arts project was to be delivered, and with an understanding that potentially this was just the beginning of a longer term plan to support the ongoing learning and employment needs of young people in the Peachey Belt area, particularly through the arts. Makin it Peachey! led to outcomes beyond the performance. At a school level we are now working on a similar project for 2006 which will be brought into the school timetable and curriculum and will provide another example of how artists and educators can work together to achieve learning outcomes for students. Makin it Peachey! demonstrated a commitment to young people in marginal situations, either through geographic location, socio-cultural environments or economic disenfranchaisement. Helen comments, It was important Makin it Peachey! happened because it really did make a difference to some of these young people. It gave us new insights into ways of working and has bonded together a strong community of workers committed to achieving oppoprtunities for young people. It has also affirmed for educators and the community the value that the arts can play in making links for young people. On our first day of workshops 16 students participated, by the second day and through the word of mouth of the participants 28 young people turned up for day two! Already we knew we were doing something engaging. In reflecting on the outcomes of the project, Helen says that Makin it Peachey! demonstrated: Word of mouth between young people and their engagement with the arts activities brings in more young people Young people respond to having some control in their learning Young people are prepared to work on during their holidays Young people want to share what they have learnt and what they can do Through the arts young people feel better about themselves and make connections with job opportunities. Observations from Smithfield Plains HS Aboriginal Education Resource Teacher & Student Counsellor involved in Makin it Peachey! noted, The participants involved have shown a strong sense of motivation in relation to this project. This is a motivation that we have never seen before in a lot of these kids. For example, in the week that Glenn Hayden was away the students worked hard to negotiate a space to carry on
rehearsals. This involved working with teachers, coordinators and the principal to negotiate a space, find out (and meet) the requirement for consent, developing a roster for teachers to volunteer their time to supervise. The teacher and counsellor also noticed throughout the project students have showed a strong sense of pride in what they are doing. They were genuinely proud of what they are creating. Both commented, the project seems genuinely student driven. They feel a genuine sense of ownership of what they are doing, and know that it is their knowledge and skills that makes the project what it is. Other reported outcomes from Makin it Peachey! included students developing new skills that could be applied in other projects and situations, increased teamwork, demonstration of commitment to the project, improvement in negotiation skills and the demonstration of initiative. Both Sharon Hogan and Helen Bock report that the word fun appeared in many interviews with young people participating in Arts Pathways and Makin it Peachey!. Sharon says, they wanted to have fun as opposed to being bored, to be immersed in a project, to forget their problems for a while...they were looking for aesthetic relief. Developing frameworks and programs that encourage sustained and frequent contact is a challenge when working in a post-school environment with isolated and often transient youth who are not connected to a learning organisation or a community group. Young people who had more frequent contact and sustained attendance with each program - Arts Pathways, Risky Business and Makin it Peachey! obtained more out their experience. Each of these programs re-ignited young people s interest in re-engaging with learning, training or work. Arts Pathways: A Road Map to Engaging with Young People may be downloaded by visiting http://www.trainandemploy.qld.gov.au/ Submission and registration forms for the Risky Business Symposium can be downloaded from: http://www.sca.unimelb.edu.au/riskybusiness/researchproject/symp.htm ARTSsmart can be downloaded from: http://www.artssmart.sa.edu.au/ Sandra Gattenhof