Evaluations

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 →

Author Leonidas Cheliotis (London School of Economics)

Published October 2014

Artforms Creative Writing, Multi-Arts, Music, Visual Arts

Organisation Koestler Trust   Project venues Parc, Peterborough

Participant type Male and Female Adult Ex offenders

Sample size: 60

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 →

Author Laura Caulfield (Bath Spa University)

Published August 2014

Artform Visual Arts

Project venue Grendon

Participant type Male Adult Offenders

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 →

Authors Jane Hurry, Patrice Lawrence, Jessica Plant, Anita Wilson (Arts Alliance)

Published March 2014

Artform Creative Writing

Organisation Arts Alliance   Project venue Prisons around the UK

Participant type Male and Female Adult Offenders

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 →

Published 2013

Artform Music

Participant type Male and Female Adult Ex offenders

Sample size: 7

“The Good Days are Amazing”  An Evaluation of the Writers in Prison Network 

This qualitative evaluation by Sheffield Hallam University was designed to:

  • map the activities of the Writers in Prison Network (WIPN)
  • identify the barriers and facilitators to effective delivery of the programme
  • identify effective practice
  • assess the impact of the programme on prisoners, writers and prison staff
  • assess the effectiveness of ... read on →

    Authors Katherine Albertson, Caroline O'Keefe (Hallam Centre for Community Justice, Sheffield Hallam University)

    Published October 2012

    Artforms Creative Writing, Multi-Arts

    Organisation Writers in Prison Network

  • 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 →

    Author Leonidas Cheliotis (Centre for Criminal Justice, Queen Mary Colege, University of London, Queen Mary College, University of London)

    Published November 2010

    Artform Visual Arts

    Organisation Koestler Trust

    Beats & Bars - Music in Prisons: An Evaluation

    The report evaluated a series of five-day music projects which took place in eight men’s prisons across England from October 2007 to July 2008. The evaluation was aimed at understanding the impact of the project on its participants’ engagement with purposeful activities whilst in prison. In particular the impact of ... read on →

    Authors Alexandra Cox, Loraine Gelsthorpe (Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge , University of Cambridge)

    Published

    Artform Music

    Organisation The Irene Taylor Trust (Music in Prisons)   Project venues Brixton , Edmunds Hill, Littlehey, Manchester, Wandsworth, Wayland, Whatton

    Participant type Male Adult Offenders

    Sample size: 69

    Dance Included: dance in social exclusion contexts

    An action research project that explored models of good practice in dance and social exclusion though six ACE funded dance-led projects that aimed to tackle problems associated with social exclusion. Growing out of the Art of Inclusion report (2004) and in turn feeding into the good practice guide Dance Included: ... read on →

    Author Helen Jermyn (Arts Council England)

    Published February 2006

    Artform Dance

    Women and Anger

    An evaluation ofThe evaluation report concluded that findings indicate that the programme can be effective in the selection, engagement and facilitation of attitudinal and personal change for women who identify themselves as having problems with the management and expression of angry feelings. This evaluation focused on two key factors: To ... read on →

    Authors Rebecca Clarke, Patrick Williams (Reclaim North West)

    Published 2005

    Artform Multi-Arts

    Organisation Clean Break   Project venues Cookham Wood, Winchester

    Participant type Female Adult Non offenders, Female Adult Offenders

    Sample size: 40

    Made for prisoners by prisoners

    This evaluation by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) of Safe Ground's 'Parents for the 21st Century' initiative, is divided into two distinct phases.  The first focuses on the process of development, whereby inmates played a major role in the production of the course materials - the aim of ... read on →

    Authors Mary Ashworth, John Harland, Karen Hasley (National Foundation for Educational Research)

    Published September 2002

    Artform Drama

    Organisation Safe Ground

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