Supporting Young People’s Confidence in Youth-Led Creative Projects

How are you creating an environment where young people can become leaders? Changemakers? To use their voice to express themselves? To share their creativity with the world? At Artswork, our programmes are built to do just that.

From one-off creative workshops to career placement programmes, and cultural leadership projects, our work is built on listening to young people, providing the conditions they need to thrive and opportunities to use their voice. Our programmes all have a developmental aspect and aim to build up the confidence of the young people we work with and for. In this article we’re going to cover the importance of transparency, and affirmation.

When young people begin to engage with an Artswork project, each come from their own unique background and have varying levels of confidence across different areas. Our Young Cultural Changemakers programme, for example, is about promoting youth voice in communities – and some young people will come to us knowing what they want to say, but they may lack opportunities to share their voice. Others may not have experience of engaging with cultural projects, may have ideas they struggle to express, a lack of confidence that they will be heard, or any number of different starting points – all of which are valid.

We spoke to Beccy East, our Creative Producer in Arun working on our Young Cultural Changemakers programme, to get an insight on how she supports the young people she works with to develop their confidence in different areas. These insights are transferable to different settings, so you don’t have to be delivering co-produced cultural projects in the same way we are to benefit from this article.

Clarity & Transparency

Create a culture of transparency around your project, and clearly communicate how young people’s contributions will affect the outcome you are working towards.

Whether your project has a tangible outcome where young people’s contributions are reflected and their ideas are shared, or you are working in hypotheticals, ensure all those contributing fully understand the process.  

On our Young Cultural Changemakers programme, young people’s ideas are vital – they are translated into outcomes that affect change in their communities. A culture of transparency around the process involved is important, including clarity around how any conflict that arises may be managed, and what we will do with the contributions they bring. Showing confidence in young people builds trust that we respect their contributions, and creates an environment where they can find the confidence to truly express themselves. 

Not all projects will be able to offer real tangible change from contributions given, this is where the transparency comes in – but in being open about this from the start, young people can still leave with the confidence that their ideas are valued.  

Affirmation 

Respond to what young people bring to a project in a consistently positive way.

Respond to their ideas, creative expressions, and whatever they feel able to bring in a consistently positive way that recognises that it can be hard to share. Being creative and using your voice can both be difficult things for all of us – so we want to create an environment where young people know their efforts will be respected and honored, and that celebrates the courage that the young people show by the act of sharing itself. 

“In a creative process all offers are a form of success, because to be creative is difficult and it requires you to reach quite deep and expose yourself in ways that can be hard.” – Beccy East

Demonstrating this attitude allows a flow to develop in a creative project or conversation, because you know all you have to do is try. When young people realise you’re not asking them to get it right the first time, or come up with a final solution, it can bring energy and momentum to a project, especially when combined with transparency and clarity so that they understand they are being listened to, what they share is meaningful, and it will influence real outcomes. 

The result

We have seen throughout our programmes that with growing confidence comes a greater ability and willingness to engage with a project. When young people believe that a project is actually going to happen, reflect their contributions, and affect real change, this confidence brings a shift from disengagement to commitment.  

Building up young people’s confidence alongside their knowledge and skills benefits not just the young person but also the wider community.

Key sites in Littlehampton town centre will soon be linked together by a new creative wayfinding scheme, planned as part of our Young Cultural Changemakers programme in partnership with Littlehampton Town Council. Students aged 7-13 from the Littlehampton Academy in Arun are working with artist Angela Chick on this community focused commission, using creativity to uplift the ways visitors and the local community move through the town. After learning, sharing their ideas, and developing their concepts as a group, the young people pitched their ideas to the town council Committee who will be making the project a reality. 

“The Committee were genuinely impressed with the dynamism and visual clarity of the ideas developed by the young people. Wayfinding has long been a challenging issue for the town and this co-produced approach has the potential to bring something fresh, inspiring and new to the process, led by the creativity of our local youth.” – Councillor Alan Butcher, Chair of the Littlehampton Town Council Policy and Finance Committee

This project demonstrates that with the confidence to put their ideas out into the world, young people can shape and inspire their whole community. 

Inspired? If you are looking to incorporate some of these techniques or develop work with young people within your own organisation, talk to us.

Our knowledgeable and highly experienced team can help you with a range of delivery, development and consultancy projects. Our commitment to improving the lives of young people, plus our wealth of experience, means we can offer you exactly the support you need. 

Revenue generated through Artswork’s paid services helps our charity to empower more young people through creativity.