Gateshead Restorative Justice Programme

[Gateshead] 2009 onwards

Working with Gateshead Youth Offending Team to deliver a participatory arts programme to enable young people to undertake creative activity which benefits the local community.

The core aims are to:

• Make young people in the youth justice system feel the consequences of their actions through a structured community reparation scheme;
• Provide products for the use/tangible benefits to people in Gateshead;
• Enable personal development of the participants' confidence, self esteem, communication, negotiation and team working skills;
• Enable the participants to develop new skills, interests and broaden their horizons by helping them to build relationships with people they would not otherwise meet and visit venues they would not otherwise attend.

The project will achieve these aims by:

• Undertaking a process of artist led consultation with Gateshead Youth Offending Team staff, young people accessing the programme and members of the community to develop a sustainable approach to restorative justice activities;
• Providing a motivating 20 week programme of high quality arts activities for participants;
• Providing participants with the experience of working alongside professional creative practitioners;
• Producing high quality creative product(s) to be installed and publicised in the local community based on outcomes from the consultation process and workshops;
• Supporting participants to attend local cultural venues and events.

The group will be working with one or more artists to create artworks for a large underpass as part of a wider regeneration of the Dilley Line, an old wagon way connecting Bill Quay and Wardley. The arts activity is planned to start in November 2009