Introduction

Odd Arts received funds from ACE to develop and deliver the CCR project from March 2021. Within this time it has delivered 349 sessions, working with 473 individuals and 20 Artists. It has commissioned and undertaken a participative external evaluation throughout.

The core principles that inform the CCR project are as follows:

• CCR wants to challenge the misconception that people who have experienced adversity, trauma and incarceration are ‘other’.

• CCR does not think that people who have served custodial orders are the same as people who have been sectioned under the mental health act or the same as people seeking asylum, but it recognises that individuals with any of the previous lived experience are likely to have faced multiple barriers and trauma and require a needs-based, flexible, person-centred, trauma informed and

It’s key aims and desired impact are:

CCR Aims to increase (for individuals)

A sense of belonging, connection and purpose

Well-being and mental health

Protective measures and resilience

Work-based and creative skills

Confidence and communication skills

CCR Aims to reduce (in society and the creative sector)

Negative misconceptions around people deemed as ‘other’

A one-fits-all approach

Inequality and lack of access to arts, theatre and culture

Top down approaches, that prioritise organisational needs over individual needs

Systemic discrimination safe approach to working with them.

• CCR adopts high quality theatre, arts-practice and arts practitioners, that is also underpinned by therapeutic, trauma-informed, restorative, strengths based and non-violent communication approaches.

• CCR is community-led, meaning that the design and practicality of the programme respond to the needs of the people and the communities we work with.

• CCR is testing new ways of working and not conforming to the status quo in how people who face experience racism, inequalities, disadvantage and discrimination engage with theatre, arts and culture.

The project was designed to deliver a range of interventions including 121 and group based creative activities that will ensure that each participant’s needs are met. Individuals are supported in three key phases – Engagement, Creative and Cultural Therapeutic participation, with a view to building (at phase 3) Community Confidence and Creative skills.

CCR delivers to a range of participants, either by self-referral, the referral of individuals from critical stakeholders and group delivery on site at stakeholder premises. (Referral)

Stakeholders include NHS, HM prisons, Mental Health support agencies and community support groups. In addition, the project engages with artists and creative organisations across the region to make creative connections for individual participants - in Theatre, Art, Music and more.