Supporting young people on the edge

We support young people who are at risk in a variety of ways through collaboration with a wide spectrum of partners – youth offending teams, pupil referral units, youth services and other voluntary sector organisations. Our projects cover a variety of art forms, from photography and film to dance, circus skills and visual arts.

An example of the way we work is our ‘Transit’ Youth Dance Project.

“Dancing is like marching, you have to be in the right step in the right time.”

 ‘Transit’ is about raising aspirations, enhancing confidence and providing an effective pathway towards a more rewarding life for young people, based on the discipline of a professional contemporary dancer.   During Spring 2010, we worked with a wide variety of referral partners to deliver a contemporary dance project based at the Wycombe Swan Theatre in High Wycombe.   14 young people from a diverse range of referral partners, including Buckinghamshire Youth Offending Service, Connexions, The Beaconsfield School, Wycombe Social Care and The Grange PRU, attended 7 days of workshops to produce a piece which was performed on the main stage of the Wycombe Swan Theatre.  The work was delivered by experienced dance artists Maria Ryan and Helen Parlor with the support of JumpStartMove (www.jumpstartmove.co.uk).  We have produced a dvd of the project which will be available at the end of July. If you would like a copy, please contact judy@thamesvalleypartnership.org.uk

In addition to the projects listed below we  also acted as a Creative Agent for the Change and Enquiry Schools programmes run by Creative Partnerships and delivered in the Thames Valley region by Creative Junction (www.creativejunction.org.uk)