The Social Arts Exchange is our creative mentoring service, supporting young people age 8+, who have been especially affected by all the impacts of Covid-19. The service launched at the end of 2020 with funding from BBC Children in Need, National Lottery Community Fund and later Derbyshire County Council and High Peak Public Health funds.
Young people referred may have existing additional needs which have influenced their resilience to the changes seen since March 2020, and were finding return to school and social settings difficult.
The activity itself is a person-centred, regular session with an experienced creative practitioner delivered wherever suits the young person – i.e. school or community setting. The young person has dedicated time to use as they wish, setting their own interests and aims and no pressure to produce finished work. The mentoring runs for around 8 sessions and towards the end participants are introduced to some of our ongoing group work, such as Film Cuts Club or Tall Tales.
In November 2021 we had medical students on placement from Sheffield University, and one student processed our existing evaluation material from the programme and produced a report, Click here to read or download.
