Meet the Propel Grantee
This month, we chatted to Zoe at The Big House Theatre to hear more about their work in changing pathways and perceptions of care experienced young people in North London.
The Big House (TBH) is a creative arts organisation that supports care experienced young people to live independent and fulfilling lives. Our core programmes use drama and creativity combined with long-term pastoral support to build their self-esteem, resilience, and employability skills. Propel funding has enabled us to become a multi-entry organisation, which meets young people where they are on their personal development journey. We have strengthened our early intervention (EI) and developed our quality mentoring, giving our senior members employment opportunities as lived-experience mentors for the next generation
The change we’re exploring through our Propel grant is how employment programmes for care experienced young people can also address fundamental emotional needs. We know that most employment programmes are delivered at the expense of young people’s emotional, creative, and social needs. Propel funding has enabled TBH to go against this trend and further support the care-experienced young people we work with to successfully sustain education, employment, or training. We give them access to a therapeutic space in which to overcome traumas and long-term holistic support from our team and a community of peer mentors.
One thing we’ve learned so far is the fundamental need for all young people to have a lived-experience mentor. Our members delivering workshops in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) found that young people were being signposted to prison by their teachers, leaving them with no self-esteem, confidence, or ambition. Working with our members, who have been in PRUs themselves, and even seeing them on stage in our theatre shows has had a transformational impact on these young people.
We have “witnessed even the shyest of students finding their voices” – Headteacher at Pupil Referral Unit
We’d love to connect with other organisations who also support care-experienced and marginalised young people, particularly those who have been interested in creativity, drama and music! We’d love to welcome them for a chat about our projects, or even to come and see our original, hard-hitting theatre productions!
We’d also love to hear from any organisations who are thriving in their individual giving and corporate fundraising & might want to share some tips!
Your young people can engage with us through our Open House Project. It’s an original glimpse inside the minds of our membership, who work hard over 12 weeks to create a professional standard production. The show is currently in development and will begin in April. Please keep an eye on our website/social media for details and do get in touch if you want to come with your young people!
Oh and one more thing! It was announced this week that a young person from The Big House has now had her script commissioned. Her play “I’m Allergic to People” will be at The Blue Elephant Theatre in Camberwell in March and there will be a TV pilot!
Connect with The Big House by email, follow them on Instagram, or go see one of their amazing shows!
