Back in 2013/14, Heads Together Productions was involved in the Paul Hamlyn funded Artworks Initiative which was a national research project looking at improving professional development in the participatory arts sector.

It might have taken a while, but UNION has come out of that Initiative, and key in its development was some Action Research funded by Artworks which we took on with the following aims:

• To investigate the opportunities for training in participatory arts from the point of view of young people
• To gain an insight into the key issues affecting young people’s choices of training opportunities
• To consider how this links with the competencies expected by employers in the sector when looking to offer work opportunities to young people

Young people connected with Heads Together and the East Leeds FM project were directly involved in defining the research, visiting universities and other training institutions, doing telephone research with community arts organisations, creating radio programmes, and the production of the final report.

You can download a pdf of that report here.

“What if I could make a plan. A plan to get me where I want to go. A plan that I could take to like a blanket, wrap it around myself so I know that I am safe—that my life is worth living. When I think about the future, I need to know that this, all of this, whatever this is—is worth it.”