Evaluations
The Lullaby Project: areas of change and mechanisms of impact
Creative projects and their potential towards positive psychosocial change have been consistently evidenced, particularly with vulnerable groups. The Lullaby Project (developed by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in New York) has now been implemented in UK through two pilot experiences where the Irene Taylor Trust (who led the initiative), brought ... read on →
Evaluation Report: Community Exchange project between detainees at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre and young people at West London YMCA
The report explores the project’s impacts on participants’ wellbeing and resilience, awareness and understanding, and musical skills. Based on observations, questionnaires, interviews and focus groups, it contains a wealth of detail about the creative process and the experience of participants. The report also looks at the project as an example of ... read on →
The Arts of Desistance: Evaluation of the Koestler Trust Arts Mentoring Programme for Former Prisoners
This report presents and discusses the findings of an evaluation of an arts-based mentoring scheme that is aimed at prolonging and enhancing desistance from crime through providing former prisoners with opportunities to continue engaging with the arts after release. The evaluation focused both on the implementation and effectiveness of the ... read on →
Final evaluation of the Artist in Residence at HMP Grendon
This report presents findings from the second half of a four year art residency at HMP Grendon. Through analysis of observational data, interviews, focus groups, and assessments of social climate with prisoners at HMP Grendon, this report concludes that the residency has promoted a number of positive outcomes. There is ... read on →
Write to be Heard: Supporting Offender Learning through Creative Writing
The report explores the impact of a creative writing programme developed to engage ‘hard to reach’ learners in prison. The mechanism was a creative writing competition, incorporating a schedule of workshops in 28 prisons, encouraging entrants to write pieces for broadcast on National Prison Radio (NPR). Using qualitative and quantitative ... read on →
Sounding Out - Jim Cartwright
The report followed Music in Prisons as they ran a pilot ‘through the gate’ project which, through music, aimed to provide longer-term rehabilitative opportunities to previous project participants in order to help bridge the gap between life inside and out prison. The key aims were to assist reintegration; impact on ... read on →
“The Good Days are Amazing” An Evaluation of the Writers in Prison Network
This qualitative evaluation by Sheffield Hallam University was designed to:
An Evaluation of a Pilot Study of a Literature-Based Intervention with Women in Prison
This study investigated whether ‘Get Into Reading’, a literature-based intervention, which had been established in other custodial contexts and non-custodial mental health settings in the UK transposed to a female prison; HMP Low Newton, and whether any of the benefits identified in custodial and non-custodial contexts elsewhere were reported by ... read on →
Talent 4....
Evaluation of an arts-based workshop programme aiming to increase participants awareness of their own innate talents and skills, this research project sought to measure the effects of participating in a Talent 4... project on offenders' self -belief in their capacity to gain employment, strengths and weaknesses, ability to work with ... read on →
An evaluation of the Artist in Residence at HMP Grendon
Through observation and interviews with inmates and staff,this report documents the process of developing an artistic residency in a Therapeutic Community prison and provides an evaluation of the impact on those taking part. Based on observations across four prison wings and interviews with sixteen inmates, this report is able to conclude that ... read on →
Arts Mentoring for Released Prisoners: An Evaluation Project - interim report
An interim report on the evaluation of the Koestler Trust's mentoring scheme. The evaluation concerns both the implementation and effectiveness of the mentoring scheme, and employs both qualitative and quantitative methods, including direct observation of mentoring sessions and hour-long, face-to-face interviews with both mentors and mentees. The implementation part of ... read on →
Challenging Offending Behaviour with a Creative Twist
A review of arts-based practice within Leicester City Youth Offending Service (YOS) engaging young people at risk of offending - including YP on RAP and ISSP programmes. Descriptions of visual, drama, media and music interventiions including case study projects from organisations such as Soft Touch as well as the national ... read on →
