Case Study
Groundwork NE & Cumbria
Promoting healthy relationship behaviours and challenging the prevalence of youth violence
Groundwork has a mission to mobilise practical community action on poverty and the environment, creating a society of vibrant, healthy, green communities where individuals reach their full potential, lift out of poverty and communities thrive. Their Youth Programme takes a holistic approach, supporting young people to have their say and understand how improving their health and wellbeing improves their prospects.
What They Asked For
Groundwork had gained feedback from their Durham Works Youth Sessions which highlighted that young people don’t get much advice on toxic relationships or how to recognise them. They were keen to improve awareness around what a healthy relationship looks like and where and how to get help. They were keen to access train-the-trainer support and resources from us on these themes.
In a second phase of development, Groundwork asked us to support them with some workshops aimed at those aged 18 and under involved, or at risk of becoming involved, in serious violence. A 2023 Youth Endowment Fund report indicated that 16% of children were victims of violence in the last 12m, with 44% having witnessed, or been victims of, violence.
What we delivered together
Youth worker training
We delivered training on four themes to youth workers from Groundwork, as well as those from other youth organisations operating in County Durham. We covered sexting, domestic abuse, masculinity and sexual attitudes and behaviours, providing resources from our portfolio to enable the youth workers to go on to use our artwork to explore these themes with their groups for themselves.
Needs analysis with young people
We ran consultation sessions with Groundwork’s youth groups to get a sense of the kinds of creative activities they were interested in, the topics they were concerned about and to understand their perceptions around the prevalence and nature of youth violence in their area.
Creative workshop programme
We delivered a series of workshops across Groundwork’s youth groups in Seaham, Shotton and Peterlee, with our associate artists Sarah Stamp, Katharine Goda, Ashlea Sanderson and Bridie Jackson using visual art, creative writing, drama and song-making as the way in to exploring a range of important themes. Have a listen to the gorgeous rap some of the boys produced!
Interviews and fundraising
Some of the young people felt that hearing stories of things going wrong was an important preventative tool and volunteered to be interviewed by our associate artist Rupert Philbrick about experiences of drugs and violence in their lives. Having gathered these powerful testimonies we begun fundraising to develop this content into a shareable artistic output to educate their peers.
Outcomes
Youth worker confidence
100% felt more confident to explore language and concepts around sexual relationships, with 84% having developed their understanding of how they could explore positive relationship behaviours with young people.
New insights for young people
Through creative activities that Groundwork’s young people enjoyed, we explored emotions, identity, relationships, boundaries, role models, the concept of friends versus gangs, challenging gendered expectations that violence is “normal” for boys.
New content developed
Whilst drawing on our existing artistic portfolio, we developed new activities and approaches which we have collated together into an educator toolkit to enable other teachers and youth workers to use the content with their groups.
