Working with Young People in Barnardo’s Cymru
By Sarah Kendell
For universities, working with disadvantaged young people in the community is less of a one-way street than you would think in terms of knowledge sharing. That is what Dr Richard Knapp and his students at Swansea Metropolitan University discovered when they launched the ‘Teen Talk Back’ project, a collaboration between children’s charity Barnardo’s and the university’s performing arts and education departments.
Over a week-long series of drama workshops funded by Beacon for Wales, disadvantaged youths involved with Barnardo’s were given the chance to work with performing arts students from Swansea Met and turn their at times troubling life experiences into pieces of contemporary theatre. The students constructed a ‘diary room’ for the Barnardo’s youths to air their thoughts in a unique and personal way, before working through the film footage to create their drama presentation.
While the advantages of such a project for the children involved are numerous – not only are they able to work through issues surrounding their home lives in a safe environment and develop confidence, but they are also more likely to view higher education itself in a positive light, says Barnardos’ Karen Rees – what is perhaps more interesting are the many benefits the university itself receives from being involved. One former student who worked on the project, Ciara Collender, has now attained full-time employment at Barnardo’s as a graduate, while the university’s stronger ties to the charity have helped it develop a wealth of new mentoring and community theatre projects for current students to become involved in.
More than this, says Dr Knapp, as an academic it helped him learn more about the background of his city and develop strategies to deal with problem students who may come from similar disadvantaged backgrounds. For Knapp and the rest of the staff and students at Swansea Met, the project gained them just as many new skills as it had done the children of Barnardo’s.
