Written evidence submitted by ThinkForward

 

 

 

Introduction to ThinkForward

 

  1. ThinkForward is a NEET-prevention programme that works with hard to reach, disengaged young people in Nottingham and Kent, and Tower Hamlets and Islington in London. The young people typically come from backgrounds that are disadvantaged in many different ways.  We started in London in 2011 and launched in Nottingham in 2016 and Kent in 2017.
  2. Our highly-skilled coaches work in 17 schools -  six in London, six in Kent and five (soon to be six), in Nottingham. They offer intensive support to the students identified as being most at risk of leaving school and becoming unemployed, with all the negative impacts that then has on their life chances.
  3. We are unique because we are the only programme of its kind that works with young people for five years. We start in Year 9 and continue through to the end of the year in which students turn 18, though we also pick up students in later years if others leave the programme.
  4. We place a strong emphasis on enabling these young people to transition successfully from school into work, and then to maintain their employment.
  5. Our focus comes from the original evidence that was commissioned to design ThinkForward when it was established in 2011. This found that disadvantaged young people are most likely to drop out when they move from formal education to work. It also discovered that fundamental challenges in their lives impacted on attendance and attainment, which in turn had a negative impact on the choices they made and their chances of making a successful transition.
  6. To combat this, our programme works on attainment, attendance and behaviour but crucially, also develops a range of what we call ‘work readiness capabilities’ in young people which are key in preparing them for the workplace. They are: being driven, a good communicator, self-aware, self-assured, resilient, receptive and organised. Brought together, these ‘soft skills’ help to equip young people for the world of work.
  7. We also encourage our young people to take part in cultural and sporting enrichment opportunities that help to broaden their horizons and support the development of the work readiness capabilities.
  8. Our approach is effective and shows that we can, in many cases, overcome the fundamental obstacles our students face.
  9. We know that over the last two years, eight out of ten young people who worked with ThinkForward, went into employment or further study when they left school. When these figures are set against the starting point of the students they show a remarkable distance travelled.
  10. For example, we know that out of our 2017 graduates at enrolment:

 

 

 


 

 

THINKFORWARD’S EVIDENCE

 

 

How ThinkForward encourages participation in culture and sport

 

  1. ThinkForward uses a range of interventions to work with our young people. These include encouraging them to take part in cultural and sporting activities that they might not otherwise have access to, and to enter new worlds that previously they might have felt were not welcoming to them.
  2. We have a range of recent examples. Our young people in Kent have attended an insight day at Marlow Theatre, and a trip to visit the Turner Contemporary in Margate.
  3. In Nottingham, ThinkForward students from Bluecoat Beechdale Academy took part in an art project with Nottingham Contemporary on identity - how they see themselves and how others see them – which supported lots of our work developing life skills in young people. The project culminated in students exhibiting their work in the gallery.
  4. Ellis Guilford (Nottingham) students did a drama workshop exploring self-awareness and assuredness with The Nonsuch Theatre Group, again reinforcing our ThinkForward work
  5. Students at Nottingham University Samworth Academy (NUSA) have taken part in boxing lessons. Previously, Elycia, a Bulwell Academy pupil now in Year 11, did a boxing course alongside her ThinkForward coach.
  6. In London, we organised an insight day at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium to showcase different sporting and non-sporting employment opportunities that are available in football clubs.  Students have also been to theatre productions at the National Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse and Intermission Theatre.
  7. Islington students went to a classical concert at The Barbican to see the composer Max Richter and they also asked him questions at the end.  Students from LEAP (East London Alternative Provision) school attend weekly martial arts/boxing sessions with their coach at the charity, Fight for Peace.
  8. Our coach teams in London and Kent each have an education, employment and enrichment coordinator (EEEC) whose role partly includes responsibility for developing cultural and sporting activities, though coaches also organise these opportunities. Nottingham will also have an EEEC when we expand to a sixth school.

 

 

Why does ThinkForward include cultural and sport as part of its programme?

 

  1. We believe that sporting and cultural enrichment contributes to the development of well-rounded young people.  By exposing students to new experiences, environments and people we broaden their horizons and help them develop the vital ‘soft skills’ that they need to successfully progress into adult and working life.  In some cases, we can link their interests (often sport) with career planning, for example the insight day we organised at Arsenal. 

 


 

What ThinkForward believes is the social impact of getting young people to participate in culture and sport

 

  1. Social mobility – exposure to cultural activities broaden horizons and opens up the arts world to young people who often feel that galleries and theatres are not for them. For many of our people, sport – often coaching and personal training - is also a preferred career option. By providing them with relevant sporting opportunities, we are helping to support their route to future employment.
  2. The skills developed through sport – discipline, resilience, self-assurance, communication and being receptive – strongly mirror the skills we champion in young people and are very transferrable to the workplace. By encouraging young people to take part in sport, we also help to make them more employable by equipping them with these skills. For our young people, who start the programme as being at high risk of becoming unemployed, this is very important.
  3. Health – as well as improving physical health, activities such as boxing are having a positive impact on young people's emotional wellbeing and behaviour. Our coaches in London and Nottingham who use boxing/martial arts report improved self-assurance and resilience in young people following the sessions. 
  4. Boxing helped Elycia manage her anger and frustration and calm her down.  She explained: ‘I used to get angry really quickly and I would punch things. My hands would hurt and be really badly bruised. I was in hospital a lot, my hands used to bruise so much. My coach encouraged me to do boxing after school as a way of managing my frustration and anger. I'd refused to do it the year before, but Michelle said she would do it with me, so this time I said 'yes'. She would hold the pads and I would wear the gloves and do the punching. It was easier to punch things with something covering my hands, than to hurt my hands more.  Boxing really helped me to calm down, it was a way of getting my aggression out.  I would talk to Michelle while I was doing it and we got to know each other really well.’
  5. Crime reduction – the LEAP students benefit hugely from their visits to Fight for Peace after school every week. They know they are learning how to potentially hurt someone, but they are also learning the discipline and control not to. By taking part in these sessions they are also spending their time productively.
  6. Education – improving a young person's emotional wellbeing supports them to be in a better place to learn. The skills developed from taking part in sport – discipline, resilience, self-assurance - are transferrable to learning. By acquiring new skills in either sport or the arts, students also expand their learning.
  7. Experiencing theatre plays, often for the first time, can be a powerful experience and one that really makes young people think.  London students who went to see the Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui at the Donmar Theatre provided feedback after the show: One girl said it ‘opened up my life beyond what I could have ever imagined’ and she was going to campaign to get all the students at her school to register to vote in the election. Another attendee said: “I liked how it was adapted to include hints/nods and outright references to the current state of politics."
  8. Matt, our Kent coach who takes students to the Turner Contemporary said: ‘Art bonds people. I go to the gallery every time they have a new exhibition. I have taken groups of young people to all different types of galleries in the past and it has always brought discussion in the group. So as a way of getting a group of young people who didn’t know each other at the start of the day I have found art to be a good thing to talk about. Especially contemporary art, as it tends to raise different opinions in the group and gets a group openly discussing quite deep concepts.’
  9. Community engagement and diversity – visits to art institutions are dominated by people from a narrow social, economic, ethnic and educated demographic. By introducing a broader mix of students to galleries and museums, ThinkForward is helping to open up these worlds to more people, and to break down barriers between different groups in society.
  10. After the project with Nottingham Contemporary, the ThinkForward coach reported that students had moved from being resistant to visiting the gallery, to feeling welcome: ‘They now feel the gallery is somewhere they can visit. Before, they didn't think it was a place for them.’

 

Which programmes best demonstrate the positive social impact that participating in sport and culture can have on the five central themes of this inquiry?

 

  1. Community programmes that reach out to their local young people and engage them with relevant activities. For example, Strelley Boxing Club in Nottingham and Fight for Peace in London. Nottingham Contemporary and the National Theatre are two institutions we have positive experiences of, as they both effectively engage young people.  The National Theatre for example ran workshops for young people alongside performances of The Barbershop Chronicles.

 

How can access to cultural and sporting professions be improved to enable greater diversity? How can the Government build a pipeline of talent?

 

  1. More funding and support for cultural and sporting outreach programmes to encourage young people to participate.

 

How can museums, galleries and other cultural venues boost access and social impact?

 

  1. Again, more outreach to enable young people to feel welcome in environments that might otherwise feel alien to them. Inclusion of arts subjects in the curriculum to expose students to a range of arts-based subjects and normalise learning about, and enjoyment of, the arts.

 

 

Additional information

 

ThinkForward would be delighted to bring young people to give evidence to the committee to talk about the positive social impact that sport and culture is having on their lives.

 

 

 

February 2018