|
|
The Amber project was set up in response to the high level of self-harm observed amongst young people involved with the Danescourt Project, an initiative in Cardiff offering hostel places and housing support to homeless young people.
In order to address the problem, Amber, run by Caryl Stock offers on-going evening drop in sessions and ten week terms of one day per week, forum theatre workshops. This is where Th.Ff.C. comes in and Caryl, who has done joker training with us, and I run these workshop days. Both Amber and Fforwm volunteers participate in these sessions contributing to and gaining from the experience enormously.
The drop in group generally only deals with itself, each member participating in and using the group to deal with his/er own issues through a variety of participative workshops.
The forum theatre workshop however, though it is also a space for dealing with individual issues, is a campaigning group. By it's very nature Forum Theatre is intended to be a 'useful art', not existing for itself alone but as a tool to effect positive social change. Therefore the group seeks opportunities to interact with professionals and agencies that can improve the lot of young people involved with self-harm, using forum theatre for the process.
This workshop group meets in the centre of Cardiff and includes young people involved in all kinds of activities that the world would see as self-harm. They are therefore very knowledgeable about a subject that is sometimes shied away from, sometimes ignored and sometimes treated in a very sensationalist manner. The issue that is chiefly in our minds at the moment is the lack of appropriate services for 17 to 25 year olds. There is an adolescent service but after the age of 16 there is no special provision for young people at all and they have to use services and wards intended for adults.
The collaboration between Theatr Fforwm Cymru and the Amber Project is set to continue and, if we can make it happen, extend to a younger age group, prevention, where possible, being infinitely better than cure. |
|
