After two years of Saturday drop-in sessions, together with extra-curricular workshops with school and further education college groups, the Expression Sessions project has now come to an end. An end of project celebration took place on Saturday, 27 April 2019, at Bramblebrook Community Centre, Derby. The event was attended by session workers, Global Education Derby staff and trustees and a handful of young people who had participated on the project. Karnage and Sarai, session workers who had been running the Saturday sessions for the duration of the project, put together a film, to show how successful this type of programme can be - you can watch the film by clicking on the image below ... Throughout this two-year project, Will, Karnage, Sarai and Sophie, our sessional workers, have worked with approximately 50 young people in both formal settings (schools and college) and drop-in Saturday sessions, firstly at Arthur Street Studios and then at Creative Central. For the "formal education" side of the project, we worked with small student groups in partnership with teachers. This work was particularly successful in helping to develop empathy and listening skills. We also worked with another local charity, Children First Derby, working with young people in preparation for them joining their mentorship programme and exploring alternative futures, producing raps about their future occupations - culminating in a showcase event which was attended by parents/carers. Our "informal" Saturday sessions included plenty of time for group discussion, personal reflection and expression through lyric writing. There was use of even a recording booth for young people to take their work through to production. Regular attendees, both male and female, enjoyed getting together to share their common passion for hip hop and chat about things in a non-judgmental environment. Here are a few quotes from some the sessional workers who have worked on the project: "Show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become." — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie What happens when we only hear one story about a particular situation? If we only hear about a people, place or situation from one point of view, we risk accepting one experience as the whole truth. We face the danger of a single story:
You may or may not have heard about the "single story". Without realising it, we all stereo-type each other - we all have assumptions which are based on our encounters with other people, based on the visions we see on TV and social media, based on the experiences we have had throughout our lives. This can apply to cultures, gender, people with health or mental health problems, etc. We must seek "diverse perspectives" — seek out the other stories. Telling the stories that only we can tell about our experiences, hopes and fears - this then helps break down the power of cliches and stereotypes.
GREAT NEWS! Our Expression Sessions Saturday group will restart again on 4 August! Karnage and Sarai will be planning the sessions this week and they will start at 1pm-3pm on Saturday, 4 August. As ever, the sessions are completely free of charge to anyone aged 14-18 years old. Our aim is to help young people improve mental well-being through music, lyric writing and discussions. Come along and make some positive friends, develop your personal skills, free your mind and get creative! Want to know more? Message us via the MPR Expression Sessions Facebook page and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Saturday, 16th June 2018 was our final Saturday session at Arthur Street Studios! The GREAT NEWS is that we are setting up at a fantastic new location in the near future! The new space isn't quite ready yet, so there will be a bit of a wait, but we hope that it will be well worth waiting for! We are currently looking into the possibility of running some sessions at a temporary location but no news yet, Keep an eye out on the Facebook page for updates – and feel free to message us if you have any questions. https://www.facebook.com/TheExpressionSessions/ After a short break, for the Christmas holiday, The Expression Sessions project continues to run in both school and youth provision. From September 2017, the school delivery changed from Merrill Academy to a secure childrens' home in Nottinghamshire. Our Youth Worker, Will, has been working with a small group of young people each week, during term time, and has reported great progress. One young person is actively interested in rap performance, so is engaged and enthused by the Expression Sessions. He has developed his own raps and the project has enabled him greater scope for creativity in this area. We have received good feedback and are very positive about the work done in our sessions. The Saturday sessions, which take place at Arthur Street Studios in Derby, continue to run with our Youth Worker, Karnage - the sessions currently start at 1pm. We have a small group of regular attendees, as well as regular volunteers who have been part of the project since the beginning. The Saturday sessions are free of charge to all 14-18 year olds and are very relaxed. Arthur Street Studios has recently had some publicity in the local press and we hope that this will help to bring new people to our sessions. We hope to see Sarai back at our sessions soon, after giving birth to her second beautiful baby boy last September. Finally, we are currently exploring another area to run our Expression Sessions - we can't tell you any more yet, but will let you know when we have more to report. If you would like more information about our Saturday sessions, please take a look at the Facebook page or call us on 01332 298185 (Global Education Derby). Our Expression Sessions take place each Saturday at Arthur Street Studios in Derby. The sessions usually start about 12 or 1pm - check our Facebook page for up-to-date information.
If you are aged 14-18 years, why not pop along and give it a try - IT'S FREE! You might make some positive friends, learn new skills, feed your mind - you will certainly have the opportunity to get creative! Want to know more? Check our out Facebook page for more information and, if you have any questions, please message us via the Facebook page. We look forward to seeing you there. Part of this project is to deliver informal sessions in school - usually over a period of 8-12 weeks.
We are currently running these sessions at Merrill Academy, Derby and, this week, the group discussed depression, the causes and the ways we can tackle and cope with it. We hope to be able to offer these in-school sessions to other local schools in the future - please do contact us if you would like to express an interest! Take a quick look at Will's presentation: https://www.facebook.com/TheExpressionSessions/videos/1362574263811557/ What are The Expression Sessions?
Workshop facilitator, Sarai, explains the concept of a shared and safe space for discussion where young people can talk about the things that affect them. They can be listened to without being judged and are able to discuss subjects both local and global - including some which may be considered "taboo" outside of this safe space. Listen to our podcast, here, and find out about the positive emotions and creative outlets, such as music, art and poetry/spoken word. On BBC School Report day (16 March 2017), the BBC have published this very interesting article, which includes the following quotes:
"According to the School Report research, 70% of teenagers experience negative feelings" "The most important way schools could help was to provide someone trustworthy to talk to confidentially, said pupils" "Growing up in today's world can be a challenge for children and young people, so it's vital that they get the help and support they need." Read the full report here. |
AuthorLisa Sabey, Administrator at Global Education Derby Archives
May 2019
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