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  The company summary 

Using a range of specialised and dynamic participatory drama, music, and visual arts workshops we produce a safe space for children and young people to engage collaboratively and develop their own work. Through fictional performance and workshops, groups can mirror situations and behaviours, modelling and visualising possible alternative approaches to a range of situations as a spur to discussion and debate.

The participants have the opportunity to devise a performance/piece of Art that will be the product of the work created during our Responsibility, Empathy and Tolerance (RET) process. We use professionally trained community practitioners to implement our inclusive and successful RET process.

We use the following participatory art forms to engage children and young people: -

  • Playmaking (devising drama and stories)   
  • Film / Radio Plays
  • Music making
  • Creative writing
  • Visual Arts - mask making/banners/sculptures     
Unlike many other organisations we do not impose our own agendas on a group, rather we use our specialised process to guide participants towards realising their own ideas. Participants take responsibility for their actions and every contribution is valued within the group and they invariably build a strong, genuine and respectful dynamic towards other participants.    
The group works towards a short performance/viewing of the stories they have devised during the workshop(s). Each project is tailored to meet the aims and objectives of the organisation/agency and each participant receives a certificate of positive participation.
 
Our company's process also engages participants to examine, experience and contemplate: -
 
1. Self reflection
2. Self confidence/worth
3. Empathy for your fellow human being
4. Responsibility for your actions
5. Tolerance and an acceptance of change and difference
6. Positive and structured decision making practice
7. Creating a personal perspective for the future
8. Widening employment perspectives
9. A cultural awareness of society
  • We aim to produce the highest standard of professional Community Arts practice in our field of expertise within the UK.
  • Sustain a high quality and in depth research and evaluation process post project.
  • Successfully implement our Responsibility, Empathy and Tolerance (RET) process with participants in a rage of settings.
  • Establish strategies for the prevention of offending behaviour.
  • Restore participants' sense of personal identity.  
  • Create an acceptance of responsibility for ones own actions.
  • Promote an understanding of the causes and effects of behaviour on society.
  • Develop the interpersonal/observation/communication skills of participants.
  • Create an attitude shift towards more liberal, social and culturally enlightened perspectives on society.
  • Establish a platform for the individual and for group opinions to be constructively expressed and realised.
  • Encourage the positive expression of participants' creativity.
  • Devise a performance/piece of Art that will be the product of the work created during the process.
Project Template
The Project has been structured to be flexible. They can run for up to six weeks depending on the requirements of each organisation/establishment. Each project begins with initial discussions between the facilitators and participats taking part in the project. Below is an indication of the layout of our RET process that can be applied with the previously mention Art mediums.
(It is a general indication of the structure of each project depending on your requirements - please contact us for cost information which is based upon previous projects and negotiated time scales.)
Each section below would be achieved through workshops using various specialised exercises.
Initial communication involves agreeing a clear definition of the purpose and desired out comes of the project, which should be understood and agreed to by both:
1. The organisation/establishment
2. The Restorative Arts UK team.
A primary meeting is arranged between participants and the Restorative Arts UK team for the group to draw up a contract highlighting our individual responsibilities, what our individual aims are and how/what we are hoping to gain/achieve by participating in the project.
OBJECTIVE # 2
Group familiarisation
Where to next?
Creating a safe working space
What is the point of this?
Tackling and understanding our inhibitions
What do we do with this?
OBJECTIVE # 3
Revealing and accepting our create abilities
What do we think?
Experimenting with devising and performing our own stories
What have you got to say?
OBJECTIVE # 4
Character identity analysis (Individual/group)
Who are these people? Why do they behave like that?
Changing roles
What makes them different from me?
Devising and intertwining our stories
What do we do with our stories?
OBJECTIVE # 5
Creating appropriate ways to perform and communicate our stories
What have you got to show?
Reflecting on the journey we have taken and the roles we have played
Rehearse, Negotiate and Compromise
OBJECTIVE # 6
PERFORMANCE/VIEWING OF OUR PIECES
Constructive audience and group response/reflection
Is that it?
OBJECTIVE # 7
  • Group/individual/staff evaluation of project.
  • "Considering our future stories" - further development of stories/ideas by participants received and commented on by the company up to six months post project.
A formal certificate of achievement will be presented to each participant who has contributed to the project, which can aid personal development.