Arts transform lives of young offenders Wolverhampton experts find
A rehabilitating scheme for young offenders in Sandwell has been transforming the lives of troubled young people through arts and creative projects.
Experts from The University of Wolverhampton have been analysing the impact of introducing a rang of arts and creative activities across Sandwell Youth Offending Service (YOS).
The service works with some youngsters who have committed serious offences, but are also often highly vulnerable to exploitation and experienced significant trauma.
Mike Botham, Sandwell YOS manager, said: "The experiences of the young people can lead to mistrust or suspicion of those in authority and in turn, for practitioners sometimes the challenge of engagement can seem insurmountable.
"Young people had told us that they found some of our approach to be uninspiring and removed from their reality.
"Based on their feedback, we began thinking about how we could improve our offer and wanted to develop ways to work which were more creative.
"We recognised that the use of arts could have wide ranging benefits, and were keen to work with an academic partner to help us understand what works, and to contribute to learning about the impacts of arts on young people in the youth justice system."
In January 2019, the service was awarded funding from the Youth Justice Board's Serious Youth Violence Grant to help increase the use of arts within the scheme.
Mike added: "Although we are early in our journey, all the signs are very positive and we are keen to develop our work and make strong community links.
"We recently became the first Youth Offending Service to receive an Arts Mark award from the Arts Council, which is a fantastic confirmation of our efforts so far."
Since that was introduced, researchers have noted a reduction in breach of order by young people taking part and increase in attendance to rehabilitation sessions.
Professor Laura Caulfield, lead researcher, said: "Following the introduction of the new creative programme, our research found improvements in young people’s engagement, confidence, well-being, and aspirations.
"Young people and staff at Sandwell YOS have developed new skills, and relationships between young people and staff have become more open.
"The introduction of a new, creative approach to working with young people is already showing evidence of success, but more statistical data is needed to fully assess the impact."
