Due to Covid-19, the Creative Youth Voices Project needed to take a slightly different direction.
Rather than the project coming to a halt, the Creative Youth Voices Challenge Packs were created! These packs (digital and paper based) ensured that our Cultural Explorers were able to continue their engagement with arts and culture.
The Challenge Packs were filled with:
- Interactive activities that continued from where we left their previous engagement
- An array of online arts and cultural experiences, for them to explore and review from home whilst in lockdown
OUR REASONS FOR THIS APPROACH
We wanted to ensure that we maintained the link with our Cultural Explorers through a personable pack that would support them to continue their exploration of arts and cultural experiences, develop their voices, and have an input into local provision.
Due to Covid-19 the opportunity to attend physical experiences wasn’t possible. As such we took the opportunity to utilise the various online platforms available, to provide experiences beyond those we would have been able to provide physically.
One of our biggest hurdles was to ensure accessibility, especially to those who did not have access to the internet from home. The pack we developed again looked to provide variety to overcome this.
Again young peoples voices were at the heart of the project. The opportunity for our Cultural Explorers to review online experiences saw some incredible results, and will very much influence the development of subsequent Challenge Packs and activities.
SUMMER CHALLENGE PACK
Over Summer 2020, we also developed a more generic pack accessible for all children and young people. These packs were adapted based on the feedback of our Cultural Explorers, and resulted in lots more activities being added, including:
- A wide range of art tutorial videos created by the Loving Learning Through Creativity artists. Another Stoke CEP project, led by Partners in Creative Learning (PiCL), thanks to funding from Arts Connect West Midlands and Stoke-on-Trent Opportunities Area Fund
- Digital arts and cultural experiences to explore
- Guidance on how to become a ‘Creative Reporter’
- Plus so much more!
If you’d like to access these packs for your learners, simply follow the link to download your pack and supporting templates www.picl.com.uk/creative-youth-voices
Creative Youth Voices is a Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire Cultural Education Partnership project, led by ourselves Kreative Foundations, with the support of The New Vic Theatre, Endon High School, and The City Learning Trust.