Wakefield – Creative Consultation

In a bid to involve harder to reach young people in volunteering opportunities, City of Wakefield and its partners, North Yorkshire County Council and North East Lincolnshire Council engaged young people in a series of art-based activities including drama, music and dance.

The programme included youth worker training, artist training, creative consultation events, youth arts events, devising and rehearsal processes, the creation of new scripts and performances at key events as well as peer mentoring. 

What they learned

Know your skill base

• Understanding the limitations of its own capacity and skills, Wakefield’s Community Engagement Team worked with Youth Services to commission a specialist Arts Consultancy, HQ Arts, to develop and deliver their project

Start with what you can find out about young peoples needs

• Careful consideration of the needs of participants was a top priority

Make no assumptions about your support workers – find out!

• Support workers do not necessarily have the skills or the capacity needed to progress a project and external support was invaluable.

Think beyond the boundaries of your project

• The programme focussed on creating a culture that embraces learning

Learn from it to sustain it!

• The council ensured that some of the key skills needed for the project were transferred to others in the team so that the work could be replicated
• They held regular review processes
• They acknowledged the importance of project champions in sustaining their work.

Find out about the authority’s ongoing good practice at www.wakefield.gov.uk