red is the new black - interestlink.org.uk · on 8th january, val told us about our new project –...
TRANSCRIPT
Red is the new black A fashion show project by Interest Link Roxburgh
Children’s Group
End of project report
Contents
Introduction
Who was involved?
Making our outfits
Learning the dance
Rehearsals
The fashion show
What did everyone think?
Conclusion
Introduction
Interest Link Roxburgh Children’s Group meets every second Monday in Hawick.
The aim of the group is to work with children and young people with learning
disabilities and support them to:
- Make more friends
- Feel happier
- Feel more confident
- Have better self-esteem
- Have better social skills
This is achieved through running a variety of projects with service users and peer
mentors (young people of a similar age, who do not have a learning disability).
From January to April 2018, the project was a recycled fashion show working
under the title of “Red is the new black”.
The project involved a number of different aspects: designing and creating a piece
or pieces of clothing; learning a dance; learning how to walk a catwalk; and finally,
putting all the hard work together for an open night to parents. A lot of skills were
used throughout the project too, from working as part of a team to having a go at
sewing. Through the involvement of a choreographer, a photographer and an
older service user (from the 16 – 25 Young People’s Service in Roxburgh), the
service users also had opportunities to meet and work with new people.
Special thanks go to The Well, the venue where we made the outfits and practised
the dance, and to Burnfoot Community Hub, where the dress rehearsal and
fashion show itself took place.
Apart from the introduction and conclusion, this report of the project has been
written imaginatively from the point of view of the service users.
Rebecca Duffell, Assistant Branch Coordinator, May 2018
Who was involved?
Lots of people helped us to make our fashion show a success, including…
Staff
Val, Branch Coordinator
Rebecca, Assistant Branch
Coordinator
Emma, Choreographer
Sarah, Sessional Worker
Susan, Project Administrator
Hannah, Photographer
Volunteers
Carmel
Alison
Lynn
Julie
Peer mentors
Abbi
Kira
Lorna
Josh
Christianne
Sophie
Niamh S
Claire
Kaden
Service users – YPS Roxburgh
Craig
…and, of course, all of us!
Service users – Children’s Group
Paula, 13 years old Niamh R, 15 years old
Blair, 13 years old Jade, 15 years old
Matthew, 12 years old
Kacey, 14 years old
Liam, 10 years old
Ryan, 15 years old
Making our outfits
On 8th January, Val told us about our new project – a recycled fashion show called
“Red is the new black”. We were all excited about starting something new. Liam
even had some ideas for how to pose on the catwalk already! Rebecca brought in
some worksheets where we could design our own t-shirts and shoes.
We also drew ideas for clothes for the fashion show. Jade chose to do a scarf and
Lorna helped her to design it using coloured pens. Val gave us giant sheets of
paper and we had fun drawing around each other. We then used the outlines to
draw life-sized clothes. Kacey and Blair loved this bit so much they drew around
each other twice! Christianne and Niamh S had so many ideas that Niamh decided
they had better start writing them all down before they forgot. Paula had fun
designing a really colourful pair of high heeled shoes.
By the end of the session, we all had an idea of what
clothes we wanted to design and wear down the
catwalk. We told Rebecca and Val and they then
searched around different charity shops in the
Borders to find red and black clothes for us to use.
When they brought all the clothes in for us on 22nd
January, we could really get stuck in to making our
designs come to life.
Here we are planning
and working on our
designs.
We worked on our outfits on 8th and 22nd January and the 19th March.
Unfortunately it snowed lots in March so we had to cancel a session on the 5th,
which only gave us three sessions to make our outfits. It was hard work to get
everything done in that time. Lynn, Alison and Rebecca helped us with some
sewing, and some of our peer mentors made their outfits at home so that they
could help us as much as possible in our sessions.
We tried different things - and some of us changed our minds a lot - but in the
end Paula’s outfit was a dress, hat and feather boa; Blair made a spotty waistcoat
and matching bowtie; Matthew wore a t-shirt and hat; Kacey had a beautiful
dress and accessories; Liam created a t-shirt and belt; Ryan made a cool music
themed hoody; Niamh R made her own version of the football shirt for her
favourite team; and Jade styled a scarf and bejewelled t-shirt. Our peer mentors
and volunteers also made their own t-shirts, dresses, hats and bags.
Peer mentor Abbi used
feathers to make her
design stand out.
Learning the dance
On the 5th and 19th February, Emma from Hawick Amateur Opera Society (HAOS)
came in to work with us. At HAOS, Emma’s job is to choreograph the dances for
the Christmas pantomime and other performances. She did some drama activities
with us to start off with, such as doing different silly walks and making animal
noises. Niamh R felt self-conscious but Lorna and Kira gave her lots of
encouragement.
Emma was lovely and we soon all felt more relaxed. We practised doing some
different poses and then had a go at walking down the catwalk. It was a bit
embarrassing – even Lynn and Alison got the giggles! We started off walking the
catwalk in pairs, but some people decided to walk on their own as they got more
confident.
Emma then taught us the dance moves she had
created for the song “I feel better when I’m
dancing”. Ryan and Jade found some of the
moves a bit tricky, but Josh and Liam were really
good at dancing so they helped
the rest of us out.
Josh shows Jade how to
be super confident on a
catwalk.
Rehearsals
We had the two sessions with Emma in February to practise walking down the
catwalk and performing the dance, and then on the 16th April we had a dress
rehearsal at Burnfoot Community Hub. It was a very warm evening and some of
us were feeling tired and grumpy in the heat. Liam felt upset and nervous, Niamh
was rude to some of the volunteers, and Blair used some bad language. Everyone
apologised to each other afterwards and the lovely staff at the Burnfoot café
brought us cold water to drink and showed us how to open the windows wide.
Once we were a bit cooler, we felt better and all started to enjoy practising on the
real catwalk. Emma was there to remind us when to stop and pose and Lynn and
Alison helped with some quick last minute adjustments to our outfits. We
rehearsed the dance but had forgotten some of the dance moves… Thankfully
Niamh S, Sarah and Josh were feeling creative and helped us to come up with a
different move that was easier to remember.
The fashion show
Val and Rebecca arrived at Burnfoot Community Hub early on the 30th April to
transform the room into a catwalk and front row seats:
Burnfoot Community Hub café also made us some amazing cupcakes and
provided tea, coffee and juice for the evening. Emma also came early to check
that the music and our photo slideshow were working properly. At about 6pm we
all arrived and our parents, families, friends and carers starting arriving after that.
We all felt a little nervous beforehand, and Liam felt so nervous that he decided
not to do the catwalk. Niamh R decided to give it a go even though she felt shy
and she did brilliantly. Matthew was amazing – he walked the catwalk twice! Blair
and Paula both asked a peer mentor to walk down with them to help them feel
more confident, while Jade, Ryan and Kacey strutted their stuff all on their own.
Blair grinning after his
brilliant strut down the
catwalk with Sarah.
The photographer Hannah made sure to take loads of photos of us as we walking
and posing. Everyone who came to watch really seemed to enjoy seeing our
outfits and how confident we were on the catwalk. There was lots of clapping and
cheering.
Once we had all walked the catwalk, it was time to perform our dance. Even though
he didn’t want to walk the catwalk, Liam came to dance with us and loved it.
What did everyone think?
Craig from the YPS group was our in-house reporter for the night. He went around
interviewing parents, carers, staff, volunteers and ourselves to see how we had all
enjoyed the evening. There was also a table where people could write about the
evening.
Here are some of the things people said:
“Great outfits”
Carer “How very creative!”
Carer
“I like how everybody helps out and enjoys
themselves”
Josh
“I love my hat”
Carmel
“I thoroughly enjoyed
the dance at the end”
Carer
“Lovely outfits, I enjoyed the whole show
and it was great to work with everybody”
Sarah “Very impressed with the
clothes, well done to all!”
Carer
“Fabulous fashions and
stylish presentation”
Carer
“I love dancing”
Blair
“I loved working with you all. Every one of
you are stars! I hope we can work with and
see each other again”
Emma
“I am immensely proud of each and every
one of you. Fantastic teamwork, you made
me proud”
Val
“What a brilliant evening! I’m so
proud of the hard work everyone
has put into this project. Well
done to all of you”
Rebecca
“Amazing music and
dancing”
Carer
“The best bit was how good the
boys and girls walked the
catwalk”
Carer
“I loved all of the
show. Great work!”
Carer
“Watching you on the catwalk just now,
you can see how hard you all worked on
this project. You did really well, well done”
Craig
Conclusion
The service users and peer mentors all seemed to thoroughly enjoy this project.
Even Ryan, who said at the start that a fashion show didn’t sound like his thing at
all, got really stuck in on the final night and was excellent on the catwalk and in
the dance. Due to peer mentors missing sessions for exam study, cancelled
sessions due to heavy snow, and using a variety of venues over this project, some
of the service users – most notably Niamh R, Liam and Blair – were unsettled over
the term and found some sessions difficult. On the whole though, everyone
seemed to gain something from the project.
In relation to Interest Link aims, this project helped service users to:
- Make more friends
A lot of the group have been together for a while now, but Liam is a fairly
new member and it has been nice to see him start to build friendships with
others in the group. He has taken a shine to Ryan, and Ryan has been great
with him, encouraging the younger service user to try new things and get
involved.
- Feel happier
You can’t deny Kacey’s giant grin in her catwalk photo! There has been a lot
of laughter this term – sometimes at me for not being able to dance well,
and sometimes just because we’re all having fun – which has been lovely to
see and hear. You could see on the service users’ faces how happy it made
them to show off their hard work to parents, friends and families on the
final night.
- Feel more confident
Niamh R definitely gained some confidence over the course of the project.
From refusing to participate in Emma’s drama warm ups to dancing with
the group at the end, there has been a noticeable increase in Niamh’s
confidence. Sadly, Liam’s confidence seemed to lower as the project went
on. He started the first session telling me excitedly how he would pose on
the catwalk, but complained of tummy pains more and more often the
closer we got to the fashion show, and ultimately decided not to walk the
catwalk at all. Liam has not been part of the group for very long and we will
continue to work with him on building confidence in the future.
- Have better self-esteem
Despite her increased confidence, Niamh R still used a lot of negative talk
about herself over the term, showing that her self-esteem is something we
need to continue to work on. I think the same could probably be said for
others in the group, and it could be a good plan to work on a project linked
specifically to self-esteem in order to help the service users work towards
this aim.
- Have better social skills
As outlined in the introduction, this project naturally lent itself to meeting
new people and encountering new social situations. The service users took
this in their stride. Paula engaged with Emma immediately and despite her
lack of verbal communication, was able to let Emma know how she felt and
what she wanted in sessions. Blair and Niamh both came with me on
different occasions to ask staff at Burnfoot Community Hub Café for drinks
for the group, and both were polite and mature in their interactions with
the staff.
Some aims have been met through the project, and others need more directed
work in order to be met, but on the whole the project has been a success. The
service users have all enjoyed themselves throughout the project, and the peer
mentors have done an excellent job of encouraging and supporting the service
users when they needed it.
Moving forward, I think that there is a definite need for some more specific work
on self-esteem, and that I should continue to build on the working relationship I
have started with Liam this term in order to bring him out of his shell. With some
of the older group members due to move on to YPS or one-to-one links, it may be
that Liam starts to feel more at home with a group closer to his age. After a visit
with his parents earlier in the term, I found out that he loves the group and often
complains that he only gets to come once every two weeks, which is heartening
to hear, as there were some points during this project where Liam seemed
anxious and upset about being in the group. Val and I will continue to work closely
with him and his family.
It is wonderful to have such close relationships with the parents and families of
our service users, and the turn out for the fashion show was amazing. I hope
everyone who attended the night enjoyed themselves as much as I did. I am so
proud of all of the young people’s hard work and can’t wait to see what else we
can achieve as a group in the future.
Rebecca Duffell, Assistant Branch Coordinator, May 2018