Your summary will be used in any future publicity material. If your application reaches the finals, we will also use this information in the video we make about your project. It is therefore very important that you make this section as succinct, informative and interesting as possible.
‘The Wonderland Experience’ is a themed, interactive, multi sensory, collaborative issue based project which “propels the young audience at high octane speed” through a series of themed zones and consequences that they may face in real life using the theme of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It is a multi-agency approach with the aim and intention to work collaboratively to address the health and welfare risks associated with the excessive consumption of alcohol, risky behaviours such as sexual health and ‘legal highs’ by children and young people to reduce and prevent the associated issues and concerns within the Dumfries area.Wonderland runs at ‘Youth Beatz’ which is an annual youth event aimed at 12-25 year olds with the aim of providing youth services information, activity based entertainment and a large scale music event in Dumfries Town Centre. The Wonderland Experience is truly youth led with young people taking on the lead roles, writing scripts, making costumes, building sets, stage management, creating soundscapes, designing lighting, rig/derig etc. It creates an immersive learning environment with interactive scenarios, with a core group of young people at the heart of it who actively plan, organise and deliver the project alongside professionals from other local agencies, professional performance artists and production teams.
The Wonderland Experience has been created by staff at the Community Learning & Development Service, Youth Work Team as a youth information tool and a creative peer education method to raise awareness of issues affecting the lives of local young people. Over the last 3 years Wonderland has received immense feedback and rare reviews from audience members, participants, partner agencies, parents, wider community stakeholders and press regarding the creativity and innovative nature of its approach, and the intensity of its impact. It has been described as “educational theatre at its very best”, “cutting edge”, and “a remarkable revolutionary step in the direction of youth workand the fact all of this years performances ‘sold out’ within 1.5hours certainly proves its demand.It has also received a range of both local and national press coverage, awards and nominations, and was highlighted by HMIe as an example of good practice leading it to be put onto their ‘Journey To Excellence’ website.
This year local young people were able to take part in an intensive skills development programme, branded as the Wonderland SummerCamp which ran during the School Summer holidays as part of a Summer Programme of activities leading up to their final performance at Youth Beatz. Performance artists and specialists on a variety of issues (e.g. sexual health, Alcohol/Drugs, LGBT Issues, Prejudice/Discrimination, Bullying etc) worked alongside young people to broaden the participants understanding on these issues. Young People recreate scenarios from Wonderland inside a BigTop which includes multi-dimensional performance spaces such as tunnels, and inflatable rooms, creating an exciting learning experience in a safe yet fully immersive environment. The project allows for the ongoing development and expansion of our current Youth Informationprovisionwhich recognises the importance of and need for quality, innovative, relevant and versatile methods/approaches which need to be utilised in order to reach out to and satisfy the ever changing information, advice and support needs of local young people.
PLANNING / · a clear rationale, defined processes and focus on stakeholder needs· contributes to organisation’s goals and addresses current or emerging challenges
The rationale for The Wonderland Experience came about in early 2010, when a number of agencies identified a sharp increase in reports of underage drinking, teenage pregnancy rates, as well as reports of legal highs being used by young people that were having a substantial impact on the wider community. A multi-agency group came together to look at ways of strategically and operationally dealing with the problem.The group agreed that the priorities in dealing with the problem needed to have a holistic approach and keep the young person at the centre.The other evidence that was used for the need for a new way of tackling these issues was identified through a needs assessment that was carried out with over 1000 local young people, evidence from Youth Enquiry Service Review regarding the need for new ways of delivering youth information, feedback from local young people regarding previous youth projects that delivered in similar fashion, and the potential this method held as a youth information method.
The following priorities were agreed:
- To address issues with regard to health and welfare of children and young people, including sexual health and related matters.
- To support the concept of early and effective intervention through appropriate commitment and use of resources
- To promote diversionary activity and positive citizenship to those involved.
- Creation of a relevant and innovative method of youth information keeping up to date with changes in youth culture
- Partnership working
DELIVERING / · implemented in all relevant areas and across all the required stakeholders
· carried out in a structured and logical way, using robust and sustainable methods
The delivery model for The Wonderland Experience was very much on a shared responsibility basis where all agencies accepted they had a part to play in dealing with the issues facing young people in Dumfries. All agencies involved were honest in the discussions from the beginning and everyone was in agreement that it would have a much greater impact on the community and the young people if a joint approach could be taken. All agencies took responsibility for ensuring that their operational practices internally were adjusted or altered to fit in with the agreed approach to delivering The Wonderland Experience. This posed challenges at the beginning with different agencies needing the time to fully understand this way of working and how they could play a role in it.Over time more departments and agencies have came on board with the operation once they have seen the impact of this joined approach.
INNOVATION + LEADING PRACTICE / ·Demonstrates leading practice, and is capable of replication elsewhere·Achieves genuine innovation or new ways of working
This multi-agency approach where each partner organisation worked together on Wonderland with a specific role was the first time in Dumfries and Galloway that this had happened as a co-ordinated approach to tackling a wide range of issues at the one time. It allowed agencies to focus on their specific parts i.e. LGBT Youth Scotland- Prejudice & Discrimination, NHS- sexual health etc, but at the same time working together in a coherent and systematic way that kept the young person at the centre of the experience and dealt with the issue in a holistic way.Through the initial success of Wonderland, the group met to analyse the results and discuss follow ups as well as looking at how we can do more to deal with the issues in a joint up way. The support and buy-in of senior managers from all agencies involved has been crucial to all the agencies working together.
RESULTS + IMPACT / · a convincing mix of customer and internal performance measures·demonstrates howbetter outcomes are being achieved
· a full range of relevant results– either already achieved or with potential to deliverover time
The partners involved in Wonderland agreed to use a number of different tools to track and measure the impact of the project on young people. As part of that an Independent Community Impact Assessment was carried out in both 2011 and 2012 and allowed us to independently measure some of the impacts on Wonderland.
- Distance travelled documents results:
The young people completed distance travelled forms at both the beginning and end of their journey through the Wonderland Summer Camp. The compiled Distance Travelled scales, and general evaluations from the Camp showed improvements not only in their performance and production skills but also in their self esteem / confidence, timekeeping, perseverance, skills, teamwork, self awareness, self management, self organisation and their abilities to seek advice/accept feedback, work with others, undertake research and follow instructions.
- Feedback comments from audience members (young people, parents & partner agencies) collected at the Debrief Zone after completing their journey through The Wonderland Experience:
The quality and impact of this years’ Wonderland was clearly reflected in the feedback comments from audience members which include young people; local education, health, youthwork professionals; elected members; parents and other stakeholders.
WORDS USED REPEATEDLY BY AUDIENCE MEMBERS WHEN ASKED TO DESCRIBE WONDERLAND:
”educational” “amazing” “powerful” “surprising” “freaky” “Weird” “impactful”
- Direct Results (from Independent Community Impact Assessment):
Of 283 young people surveyed: 88% felt coming along to Wonderland and Youth Beatz their self esteem had improve; 54% has not accessed any support or youth services before Wonderland and Youth Beatz but 33% of them not said they were more likely to access services in future; 38% reduction in incidents of anti-social behaviour among young people in Dumfries compared to same weekend in previous year.
COSLA EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2013 Page | 1