Hello, my name is Amy and I am a visual artist and mentor for SCEP. Since starting my training for the Creative Mentoring Programme back in November last year, I have been trying to imagine how it might play out in real life.
Continue reading Watching the magic happen
I applied to be a Creative Mentor with a sense of quiet trust, and enthusiasm…that I would be accepted, and was quietly overjoyed to be brought on board.
I found the training to essentially be a series of digestible, yet explicitly thorough, masterclasses in various elements of good practice of Creative Mentorship…delivered in a somewhat informal, yet explicitly professional manner. In a nutshell, I call my experience of the Creative Mentorship training practical philosophy.
I think there was a mutual/collective sense of excitement shared between myself and my Creative Mentor peers in training, all of us artists in various disciplines. My discipline is poetry.
This sense of excitement was, in my mind…practically, professionally and justifiably kindled by our mentors/coaches/trainers…Matt, Craig, Anna…and Jodie.
When I received word that I had been matched with a young poet, who wished to develop…it was as if abstract excitement, enthusiasm at being invited to share…insofar as I can….so much as I may understand about poetry etc…became solidified/crystallized…the Creative Mentorship role became real, and happily so.
My role is to support my mentee, which is an absolute pleasure…in developing poems over the course of 8 sessions, each session 1 hour long…held every fortnight after school.
My mentee wishes to write about their experiences of racism, which is unfortunately…a relevant, valid and important thing to be heard.
My mentee already has a sense of themselves as a poet, in a sense I consider myself jammy to have been matched with such a mentee.
Our sessions are basically conversational workshops, wherein we discuss poetry and work on pieces…under my mentee’s impetus, and I generally consider my role as being a sounding board/ideas person…making suggestions…never dictations.
I have a line of contact, via my mentee’s teacher, whereby I can ping ideas/developments etc, and receive them in turn.
I think it works quite nicely
Issa
The Southampton Cultural Education Partnership’s (SCEP) objective is to develop a cohort of Creative Mentors as local role models in Southampton, who will work directly with and inspire Children and Young People, including those from at risk, marginalised backgrounds or NEET (not in employment education or training).
Continue reading The pleasure of offering support
My name is JJ Gale and I am an actor, theatre maker/facilitator and professional wrestler. I have been a part of SCEP’s creative mentoring programme since November 2022.
After months of insightful training last year, I am now working 1-1 with my mentee. It has been an interesting journey so far. I was paired with a young person who has no experience in the arts. However, they have expressed an interest in drama and performing arts.
My first few meetings made it clear that there was going to be some work needed to forge a positive and trusting professional relationship with my young person. They were reserved and cautious. Not wanting to open up or share much information about themselves with me. Initially even having a conversation was a struggle.
This being said as the weeks have gone on, I have found common ground and began work on creating this relationship. I have found the best approach is to always come to sessions with an enthusiastic and positive attitude. Also, I am trying my best to offer as many opportunities to experience and explore performing arts.
We have recently been to see their first ever theatre show. This was a fantastic night. Although anxious and pessimistic before the show. Following the play my mentee highly rated the performance and had a beaming smile across his face. This was extremely rewarding.
My goal throughout this process is to open the door into the possibilities for involvement and interaction with Performing Arts in Southampton for my young person. I believe it’s important to take the time to care enough and support you in the first steps in trying and exploring something new. I hope this develops into more of an interest and passion for the performing arts. However, if this is not the case then at least I have facilitated some new life experiences. I believe that already they are learning new transferable skills. Also, I think it’s great to have a safe space to push yourself out of your comfort zone and I am grateful for the chance to help facilitate that in a small way.
I am learning that I have to be in tune with the young person and where they are in life and this process and allow that to inform my goals and plans going forward in regards to the mentoring programme. I am enjoying the little wins.
JJ
The Southampton Cultural Education Partnership’s (SCEP) objective is to develop a cohort of Creative Mentors as local role models in Southampton, who will work directly with and inspire Children and Young People, including those from at risk, marginalised backgrounds or NEET (not in employment education or training).
Continue reading Enjoying the little wins
The Creative Mentorship Programme is a six month project, led by Jodie Sadler, Anna Carr, Matt Salvage and Craig Lockwood. First of all, I would like to say that all the leaders of the programme are incredible. They’re passionate, kind, and they have a vast wealth of knowledge between them that they share with enthusiasm and care. I wanted to thank them for their hard work, before writing about the programme so far.
There have now been four creative mentor sessions and my impressions are that it’s going to be an incredibly useful and special programme going forward. Our first session was mostly spent meeting each other and breaking the ice, but also learning a little bit about warm-up games and methods of leading group activities to calm and/or motivate the room. We then talked about and shared an object related to our practices, which was refreshing, especially to hear about the wide array of art forms and how special they are to every individual in the room. As we made our way around the circle, I learned about “rebellious” crafts, graphic design, fine art, poetry, photography, and even a little about wrestling. I’ve found every week that the room is absolutely buzzing with passion and drive for the creative arts.
The second session consisted of an introduction to the youth/arts sectors, run by Matt. It was very useful to learn about the different sectors, and where different companies fell. We talked at length about third sector youth agencies and how they can be funded. It was all-in-all a really interesting day.
The third session covered practice sharing, where each participant shared a ten minute workshop related to their practice. As we did that, Craig portrayed a young person with a different potential behavioural need for each workshop. This was a great exercise in how to deal with adverse behaviour and the best ways to nurture a young person’s learning/enjoyment while navigating more complex needs. We later learned about reality therapy and the idea of the real, perceived, and quality world. All very interesting topics and so useful to learn about.
The fourth session was spent learning about Trauma Informed Practice. There was so much covered about the idea of Trauma Informed Practice, that I had to ruminate for a while after the session. There was so much fascinating and vital information that I needed extra time to research it for myself. In the afternoon we performed “part 2” of behavioural needs learning, by doing various roleplays of an initial session with a young person and a referrer.
Overall, the sessions have been so helpful in my own learning, and for my confidence in myself as a creative mentor in the near future. I look upon the next few months with a sense of excitement and anticipation. This has been a fantastic opportunity thus far.
Aidan
The Southampton Cultural Education Partnership’s (SCEP) objective is to develop a cohort of Creative Mentors as local role models in Southampton, who will work directly with and inspire Children and Young People, including those from at risk, marginalised backgrounds or NEET (not in employment education or training).
Continue reading Creating Confidence
It is rare, outside of therapy; intimate conversations with friends; or job interviews, that we get a chance to talk about ourselves and our creative practice. We are conditioned to believe that as adults it is rude or self-centered to spend too much time talking about oneself.
The first session of Creative Mentor training was, therefore, a rare pleasure in that we were afforded the opportunity to speak about ourselves, our creative practice and what motivates and drives us, in a friendly and supportive environment. This was truly beneficial as it allowed us to stop and reflect on why we do what we do, and where it might all be heading.
In the same manner, we got to hear exciting stories, insights and personal observations from other creatives, across a broad range of creative disciplines. This was enriching due to the information and stories they shared but also really encouraging as this group of people is the team that we will be collaborating with for the next six months in order to deliver this exciting mentorship project.
In that first week we also were introduced to some activity-based techniques and icebreakers for engaging groups of mentees. We began to learn how we might use tools like these to encourage participation, learn about our mentees and break down boundaries between us and a group and between the participants themselves.
The second week built on what we had learnt in the first, expanding what we know about each other’s motivations to join the project. The main focus for the week’s session was learning about the landscape of Southampton and the surrounding area, in terms of provision and services for young people, arts organizations that operate in the area, and how all of these initiatives link and join up. We also delved into different types of organisational structures, how they might be funded and considerations for creatives working within these networks: ideas such as boundary setting, copyright and intellectual property considerations, and the concept of safeguarding.
Overall, the enthusiasm and creativity of those involved with this project; the forward-thinking, inclusive, and continually reflective teaching style; and the exciting hints about what’s in store has made me feel truly enthused about being part of this project and look forward to our next session.
Ellen Gillett
The Southampton Cultural Education Partnership’s (SCEP) objective is to develop a cohort of Creative Mentors as local role models in Southampton, who will work directly with and inspire Children and Young People, including those from at risk, marginalised backgrounds or NEET (not in employment education or training).
Continue reading It’s good to talk