 In this month's edition....  Arts Alliance newsJeremy Wright MP speaks at Arts Alliance event The event coincided with the Heads of Learning, Skills and Employment (HoLSE) National Forum and the opening of the annual Koestler Trust Exhibition.The afternoon provided an opportunity for HoLSE, educational providers and lead Governors to explore practical examples of ways that arts interventions can be strategically integrated into the offender learning journey. To download the presentation and find out more about the event, please visit the Arts Alliance website. Write to be Heard now open for submissions
Twenty five writing workshops have been taking place in prisons that may not have had much opportunity to work with arts organisations in the past; some were led by high profile writers including Alex Wheatle, an ex-prisoner who turned his life around to become an award-winning fiction writer, often chronicling the experiences of marginalised men; Ty, a socially conscious rapper and performance poet; and Femi Martin, a flash fiction writer and Young Writer in Residence at the Charles Dickens Museum. Click here for more information or to download an application form Arts Alliance wins RSPH Award  Events & trainingArts Alliance members have a range of events happening throughout the autumn, please don’t forget to check out the Arts Alliance events webpage and send us details of your event to share with the membership. Arts Alliance research launch7th November 2013, 6 – 8.30pm| Southbank Centre, London | Free On 7th November, Arts Alliance will be presenting the findings from new research carried out by Northumbria University (Charlotte Bilby and Louise Ridley) and Bath Spa University (Laura Caulfield) which explores how various art forms such as music, visual arts and craft processes can contribute towards creating desistance. The research 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. The research findings will be followed by the annual Anne Peaker debate, this year exploring what’s next for arts and criminal justice research. Click here for more information on the event The Strength and Vulnerability Bunker | Koestler Trust exhibition The Strength & Vulnerability Bunker is the UK’s annual national showcase of arts by prisoners, offenders on community sentences, secure psychiatric patients and immigration detainees. The sixth annual exhibition in an ongoing partnership between the Koestler Trust and Southbank Centre, curated by Mercury Prize-winning rapper Speech Debelle, this year’s exhibition is the first to employ ex-offenders as exhibition hosts. This ground-breaking employment project will not only impact on the individual participants’ skills and experience, but will give an unprecedented public profile to the value of education and employment opportunities for people in the Criminal Justice System. Visitors will be able to hear first-hand how the arts reflect, and enrich, thousands of people’s lives each year. Click here for more details Volunteering in Prison Clinks is running a one day training course developed from its Volunteering in Prisons Resource Pack. The training and pack are designed to support trainers and/or volunteer co-ordinators, managing and supporting volunteers including mentors. The day will include an introduction to the Criminal Justice System, working in prisons with available resources, volunteers’ skills and qualities, and the role of the volunteer in supporting offenders in prison. Click here for more information or to download a booking form Celebrating ten years of Gamelan in the Criminal Justice System Join Good Vibrations for four days of workshops, presentations, debates and performance as they highlight the creative, important and inspiring work done with Gamelan (and other art forms) in criminal justice and the community. Over the four days the main themes include the psychological and social benefits of Gamelan and other art forms and the realities and challenges of running arts projects in criminal justice settings. Confirmed guest speakers include Nick Hardwick (Chief Inspector of Prisons), Michael Spurr (Chief Executive of the Prison Service), Professor Alison Liebling (Cambridge University’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice), and Alan Davey (Chief Executive of Arts Council England). There are still discounts and bursaries available for this event for those unable to afford the full cost. Click here for more information Women at the HeArt | Arts at the Old Fire Station, Oxford5th - 25th October 2013| 40 George Street, Oxford The Women at the HeArt exhibition is the culmination of a project which uses a variety of multimedia art and movement methods to engage with women who may be at a crossroads in their lives and facing a number of challenges. Creative experiential processes encourage the women to increase their resilience to life and to take positive steps towards a more rewarding future. Women at the HeArt is a Thames Valley Partnership project funded by Arts Council England, The Monument Trust and Thames Valley Probation. Click here for more information Exhibiting and Celebrating Enrichment | ESRC seminar series15th November, 10am – 4pm| BALTIC, Newcastle Upon Tyne Part of a series of talks supported by the Arts Alliance on arts, creativity and spirituality in the Criminal Justice System, this seminar will consider how participants’ work is exhibited, performed, published and publicised. It will showcase successful strategies used by organisations in publicising work to the wider public. The impact of feedback on incarcerated artists and performers will be widely debated and the link between media attention and changes in policy making will be discussed. Click here for more information on this series of talks, or click here to download the application form Awareness of the literacy improvement possibilities of dyslexic detainees Generously supported by the Grundtvig programme of the EU and organised by Valk&Uil, this workshop on dyslexia in prisons is open to those involved in prison education (with a strong focus on literary improvement). During the week, peer learning will be essential to discuss necessary changes needed in order to roll out this training in other locations. Additionally, the workshop will show participants how to use the material to organise similar training. For more information, click here  Arts & criminal justice newsTransforming Rehabilitation PQQ opens for prime providersThe Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has launched its competition to find the prime providers of the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) who will deliver rehabilitation services in England and Wales as set out in the Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation Strategy. The Transforming Rehabilitation competition will continue through 2014 with contracts being awarded and mobilised by 2015. For more information, click here Keep informed and find out all you need to know on the Clinks Transforming Rehabilitation webpage Glossary of Transforming Rehabilitation terms The International Centre for Arts Psychotherapies Training has established a research forum to investigate how the arts psychotherapies professions can work together to achieve large scale research projects. The forum aims to involve researchers from art, music and drama therapies with a particular interest in defining clinical interventions. The forum plans to meet twice a year in London. For more information, email icapt.cnwl@nhs.net More in arts and criminal justice
 Resources & publicationsEvaluation and effectivenessIn June and July 2013, Clinks held a series of events and ran an online survey to find out what support VCSE organisations need in terms of research and evaluation. Evaluation is vital to ensure that organisations are meeting the needs of service users and continually improving. Being able to provide evidence to demonstrate this impact is also beneficial for funding and commissioning processes. VCSE organisations are increasingly being asked to produce good quality evidence of the effectiveness of their services. For example, NOMS’ Commissioning Intentions and the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms place emphasis on ‘evidence based’ commissioning. To find out what Clinks’ Members identified as their support needs, and to view the resources Clinks are producing in response, click here. RSPH release their 2013 Arts, Health and Wellbeing reportThe Royal Society for Public Health has released their 2013 Arts and Health report entitled ‘Arts, Health and Wellbeing Beyond the Millennium: How far have we come and where do we want to go?’ The report gives an overview of the arts and health field, with particular reference to the UK and New Zealand. It provides a review of the evidence of benefits of the arts to health, as well as the policy context of commissioning arts and health initiatives. It includes case studies and subjective reflections on how the arts can interact with health and wellbeing, and also suggests ways forward for development of the arts in support of culture, health and wellbeing. Click here to download the full report. Scottish Government report into culture and health A detailed study carried out by Scottish Government analysts has charted a direct correlation between participation in culture and improved health. Published in August, it found that those who participate in culture or attend cultural places or events are more likely to report good health and life satisfaction than those who do not. To read the full study, click here | |||
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