Encounter project snapshot

Project title: Encounter

Describe your project briefly
Encounter has worked with art and sculpture-making to explore the relationships between young people and emotional wellbeing. 16 sessions were held in 2015 with young people from Francis Combe Academy and Signpost Counselling in Watford to produce sculptures for final exhibition.

What were the aims of your project?
Our aims are:
• to provide a safe ‘transitional’ space for young people aged 14-19 with mild depression or anxiety issues to explore their feelings through working with sculpture and art-making
• to develop young people’s skills and confidence and produce an exhibition of their work in October 2015
• to evaluate the arts project to produce both qualitative and quantitative data to evidence the impacts of the work.

What happened as a result of your project?
The project has resulted in an exhibition of young people’s sculptural work which runs until October 30th at Watford Museum.
HertsCreation have also hosted a seminar to share some of their findings. The work has been well-received by both our host partners and has enabled us to develop our ways of working and a basis for further research.
A full report on the project, including a draft toolkit is being produced for the Arts Council of England. A version of the report will be available at the end of November 2015.

What evidence did you produce to show your project’s impact?
Different tools were used to produce quantitative and qualitative data on project impacts. An adaptation of the Warwick-Edinburgh model was employed at Francis Combe Academy. While little variation was shown in relation to most criteria (e.g. in relation to feelings about friends), there were significant gains in how young people rated their own happiness and in their attitudes to school.
While a few young people struggled with the media offered, the great majority of young people demonstrated very high levels of engagement and rated their enjoyment of the work very highly. Further quantitative data indicates significant gains for individual young people who had been socially isolated before the project.

What tips would you offer to someone else running a similar project?
• Be prepared to spend time at the beginning to observe and adapt your plans to the needs of young people.
• Don’t underestimate the demands of this work and ways and the ability needed to deal with occasional ‘lows’ and frustration

Your contact details to help people find more information
Martin Heaney
Email: martin@hertscreation.com
www.hertscreation.com

If you have an Arts and Health project that you would like to share through Creative Hertfordshire, please go to http://www.creativehertfordshire.com/the-art-of-wellbeing/call-for-hertfordshire-arts-and-health-projects-to-showcase/

For more information visit http://www.hertscreation.com/