UK Youth & Bolton Octagon: SWITCH evaluation
Because of our work: UK Youth secured additional funding for further related activities and for more work with Bolton Theatre.
UK Youth's Resilience (Switch) programme, delivered in conjunction with the Bolton Octagon Theatre, used the arts as a means of supporting young people to develop their potential. The project was funded through the Big Lottery Fund to help build links between 80 young people from the communities of Oldham and Rochdale where racial tension was high.
The project worked with 80 young people using the arts to develop a range of skills. The young people worked together to understand each others' points of view and to explore the impacts of community segregation. They investigated ways in which bridges could be built between Oldham’s communities.
The project culminated in a play which told the story of Oldham’s riots from both communities’ points of view and was performed to an audience of 500.
Hall Aitken was commissioned by UK Youth to evaluate the project.
Stage one: embedding evaluation. Working closely with the team, we built evaluation techniques into their practice. We developed a Theory of Change for the project and tools to record stories of that change. We helped the group to use video to record their thoughts about how the project had impacted on them and their families. We also held six focus groups in youth centres in the area and supported twelve schools to deliver ‘on-site’ records of activity.
Stage two: monthly feedback reviewed stories of change. Each month we produced a short progress report for the evaluation and each quarter we met the project team to review the stories of change.
Stage three: reporting. While an intermediate report highlighted the Theory of Change, baseline survey and early case studies, our final report assessed the implications and value of the project in delivering outcomes such as reduced crime.
Stage four: developing new links. We highlighted the potential for art to bring young people together. Most participants had never spoken to anyone from a different community. Our paper was used by UK Youth to develop new links with the theatre.
“This report is excellent and helps us understand how to reach young people from divided communities”.