Culture Cares Conference 2018

The Culture Cares Conference is for arts and specialist practitioners and academics, policy makers and professionals involved in supporting young people both in, and leaving, the care system and we would love to welcome people from the following professions, to join us and share their expert knowledge:

– Arts & Cultural Practitioners
– Local Authority Care Teams
– Funders & Policy Makers
– Residential Children’s Homes
– Virtual School Heads
– Social Workers and Key Workers
– Academics & Researchers
– Charities supporting Children and Young People
– Foster Carers
– Personal Advisers / Mentors
– Careers Advisors

£50 – Individuals (Independent Artists, Students, Foster Carers etc)

£75 – Local Authority, Cultural Organisations, Schools or Charities 

£150 – Businesses & Universities

9.45am – 10.20am: Registration

10.30am: Official Welcome

10.45 – 11.45am: opening curtain raiser performed by Care Leavers followed by a short extract performance of Leaving by Curious Monkey.

11.45am – 12.00pm: Giles Dilnot – Director of Communications and External Affairs for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England. Giles (former BBC broadcaster) will be presenting a walkthrough of a brand new national website they have created for children in care and care leavers and their vision for the Children’s Commissioner Office.

12.00 – 12.30pm: University of Derby Research Impact Presentation – Presented by Alex Nunn, Professor of Global Political Economy & Dr Tamsin Bowers-Brown, lead in Learning, Teaching and Student experience.

12.30 – 1.30pm: Lunch – alongside live performances by young people.

1.30- 2.30pm: Lemn Sissay – keynote speech followed by spoken word performance: “An adults perspective looking back and why it’s vital we start to listen to these young people’s voices and integrate them into the mainstream.” Followed by Q&A.

2.30 – 4.00pm: Break-Out Sessions

4.00 – 4.15pm: Chief Executive from Arts Council England, Darren Henley OBE.

“Experiencing and being inspired by great art and culture can enrich the lives of young people in countless ways, from building skills and work experience, to creating safe spaces to talk and create. I am delighted to be joining Derby Theatre’s Culture Cares Conference to help highlight the important role the arts play in supporting and creating positive futures for young people, both in and who are leaving, the care system.”

4.15 – 4.50pm: Panel Discussion with members of the conference followed by response and Q&A.

4.50pm: Creative response piece by Young People

5pm: Close

5 – 6pm: Networking opportunity with complimentary drinks

Keynote presentations from Arts Council England’s Chief Executive Darren Henley and acclaimed author and broadcaster Lemn Sissay MBE will explore the role that culture can play in fostering the creativity and life skills of young people in care and care-leavers, and the significant effects of this relationship on the national cultural landscape.

The award-winning Curious Monkey Theatre Company will share the stage with young care leavers from Derby’s Plus One Programme (also award-winning) in a performance which illustrates their experiences from inside the care system.

This is followed by an extract of Curious Monkey’s verbatim performance of Paddy Campbell’s Leaving – a slice of real life. It contains all the heartache and humour you would expect from genuine experiences, told by those who experience them. It reaches out to those affected by the issues in the play – from looked after young people to those working in social care, in local and national politics.

Derbyshire Creative Mentoring Programme – A presentation by Kim Johnson; Arts Education Consultant from Virtual School at Derbyshire Children’s Services and Emily Bowman; Deputy CEO from The Mighty Creatives (TMC), Arts Councils Bridge organisation for the East Midlands.

The session will share learning around Derbyshire Virtual Schools innovative Creative Mentoring model, where artists are working closely with children’s services professionals to improve positive outcomes through creative cross-sector collaboration. The model has been developed by Derbyshire Virtual School with support from TMC and is changing the lives of children in care across the region.

Breaking Barriers to Higher Education – Dr Eric Baumgartner (CELTA, BA, MA, FHEA) is the Head of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University.

An active session exploring some of the issues around access and barriers to Higher Education for young people with a background in care and discuss what ‘raising aspirations’ means in this context.

Eric will also share a short presentation on the work of INSPIRE, an international project with young people in care, which explores inclusive learning approaches both from language learning and wider teaching approaches.

ArtsLink – Shaping a Cultural Offer for Children in Care – an interactive session to explore the content framework of a Cultural Offer for the range of children in care. Exploring a regional partnership between the 14 Virtual Schools in West Midlands and Arts Connect, Arts Council’s Bridge organisation.

Trust in Care – This session features a theatrical performance by dance and theatre artist Nathan Geering and his company, which combines street dance, poetry, beat-boxing, contemporary dance and interactive projection to reflect relationships between young people in care and their creative mentors.

You will also hear from young people in care as to how they have been directly involved in making this piece, acting as creative consultants in the process.

Creating A Safe & Creative Space – Curious Monkey Theatre Company and Derby’s Plus One Programme explore their creative process with young people and the elements of best practice and the positive when working in collaboration with young people in cultural venues.

All delegates received booking forms to choose their breakout session and lunch preference two weeks prior to the event.

All children and young people should have the opportunity to lead happy and fulfilled lives, no matter where they are born or live.

Statistics show that if you grow up in care you are five times more likely to be convicted of a criminal offence and five times more likely to have been excluded from school. Overall, children in care face a much higher risk of homelessness, teenage pregnancy and unemployment.

Through partnership work we have a real chance to innovate and do things differently. As an Opportunity Area, Derby is making real strives to close this gap.