NIACRO Response. Strategy for Culture and Arts

Transcription

1 NIACRO Response Strategy for Culture and Arts Date: 12 th February 2016

2 Culture and Arts Strategy, Response Co-ordinator Arts and Creativity Branch Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure Causeway Exchange 1-7 Bedford Street Belfast BT2 7EG 12 th February 2016 NIACRO s response to the Strategy for Culture and Arts NIACRO is a voluntary organisation which has been working for more than 40 years to reduce crime and its impact on people and communities. NIACRO provides services for, and works with, children and young people, families and adults, whilst working to influence others and apply our resources effectively. NIACRO receives funding from, and works in partnership with, a range of statutory departments and agencies in Northern Ireland, including criminal justice, health, social services, housing and others. Our policy comments are based on both our experience of delivering services and feedback from our service users. We welcome the opportunity to comment on this Strategy. NIACRO welcomes the Strategy s focus on how arts and culture can best promote equality and tackle poverty and social exclusion. Our organisation and service users have significant positive experience of engaging with the arts and recognise its benefits in promoting inclusion, particularly in relation to resettlement and reintegration after custody. The consultation document notes that the Strategy will make an important contribution to the current Programme for Government and several key Executive commitments, including Delivering Social Change and Together: Building a United Community. The drafting of this Strategy is an opportune time to highlight that arts and culture also have a role to play in the Executive s Strategic Framework for Reducing Offending, particularly under the Reducing Reoffending heading, which notes the importance of pathways to resettlement in supporting desistance and also the need to remove barriers to reintegration. 2

3 Our experience shows that the arts, in a number of formats, can promote equality, self-esteem and a sense of community integration in those who have previously offended. The strategic themes Equality Through Arts and Culture, Valued Arts and Culture and Wellbeing resonate particularly with the experience of our service users, many of whom have had the opportunity to engage in arts projects and share their experiences, whether it be in prison, part of their resettlement after release from custody, or a reflective project some time later, such as with the 2013 radio play Built to Contain. In particular, we have found that engagement with the arts can play an important role in encouraging and enabling women who have offended to reintegrate and feel part of a community that they previously thought was for other people, people who they felt were perceived to be better. Participation in the arts also helps these women to tell their story and manage their emotions in a healthy way, supporting good mental health, as well as promoting engagement with creative classes in their local communities. Such activities support resettlement and improve reintegration, which is critical in reducing the risk of reoffending. To illustrate our experience of how the arts can promote equality and tackle disadvantage, some examples in relation to our work with women who have offended are given below: Through engagement with Prison Arts, a number of women we have worked with have had the opportunity to go to The MAC for group work. For the majority of the women, this was the first time they had entered an arts venue. Feedback from the women indicated that they initially felt out of place and paranoid in the venue; they felt that they shouldn t be there and that other visitors would judge them. However, the more they attended the venue and participated in the group work, the more comfortable they began to feel in that setting; this led to the women 3

4 developing more confidence, to the point were they felt inspired to visit others arts and culture venues such as museums. Another venue which welcomed the women was the Lyric Theatre. The Theatre currently offers placements for people in custody, and over the Christmas period gave a number of women the opportunity to attend a play in the Theatre. The women fed back that they really enjoyed the experience: again, they initially felt paranoid and worried that they wouldn t know the appropriate social cues, and that other people would feel they shouldn t be there. However, they then began to feel comfortable and reassured that they weren t being judged, leaving with the feeling that the Theatre was for everyone. In the last two years, through a partnership project including the Quaker Service and the Prison Arts Foundation, approximately 30 women have taken part in a narrative dialogue project. This enabled women to tell the story of their past and their journey to today. It was a therapeutic intervention which included creative writing and an arts therapist. All the women involved enjoyed the project and felt the benefit of both the creative writing and art. This activity encouraged women to use their creative skills to discuss painful experiences and gave them the confidence and tools to address issues they had buried inside. After this experience, several of the women expressed a desire to continue with their new found skills and began to identify creative writing or art classes in their local communities. Such opportunities such as those outlined above have allowed the women to feel that they are not excluded from the arts, and many recognise that arts and culture offers them opportunities that they can enjoy, particularly if they can avail of early bird or matinee priced tickets. Practitioners recognise the benefits of such activities in supporting the women to reintegrate with their communities and feeling like they fit in. 4

5 In conclusion, NIACRO recognises the important role that arts and culture plays in tackling disadvantage and promoting social inclusion, and we recommend that the Strategy notes the power of the arts in promoting resettlement and reintegration for people who have offended. The examples above offer just some insight into how the arts can help women who have offended to address issues and therefore help reduce the risk of reoffending; this brief response has not detailed how the arts can also provide effective interventions and support for male adults who have offended, young people involved in offending behaviour or at risk of developing such behaviours, or families affected by imprisonment. We support the ethos of making arts and culture available to everyone: we recommend that the Strategy ensures that it is extended to those who have offended, are at risk of offending, or who are affected by offending, and that the Department recognises how this Strategy may contribute to the Executive s Strategic Framework for Reducing Offending and the commitment to Supporting Desistance. For more information, please contact: Julia Kenny Policy and Research Co-ordinator NIACRO julia@niacro.co.uk 5