The care-leaving service for Salford has been transformed through art, decorating and DIY to help young people in care feel more empowered when accessing the service.
Salford’s ‘Next Steps’ is a care-leaving service and is located at Salford Opportunities Centre, 2 Paddington Close.
At the centre, pathway advisors and aftercare workers support young people through their transition from care into adulthood by helping with things like education, budgeting and accessing health services.
The project began with Next Steps asking Greater Manchester Youth Network (GMYN) for guidance on the project.
GMYN is a charity which helps young people make positive impacts on their lives and the wider community through youth programmes and community projects.
GMYN’s programme coordinator, Brad Lincoln, works closely with Next Steps and worked with the team to help facilitate the project.
He said: “Next Steps is primarily there to support care leavers [through] that difficult space when you leave care.”
Before the project began, Brad led discussions around what needs the young people at the service felt were not being met.
The group explained how particular rooms trigger difficult feelings and memories of traumatic conversations surrounding their care journey
Brad said: “Being in a space which doesn’t comfort you can add to the difficulty of that setting.”
He emphasised the importance of “environment and setting in taking that five-percent sharp-edge off those difficult moments.”
Phil Varghese, the manager of The Next Steps Project, said the building was very “business-like” before the project started and that the work the young people did “brightened” up the whole building and made a huge difference.
The project was born out of the young people’s desire to create a more positive, comforting and homely environment for the next generation of young people in care who will access Next Steps.
GMYN also contacted The Lowry’s Youth Coordinator, Fraser Thomas, for support on the project.
Fraser organised funding for the project and also gave the team access to free materials from The Lowry.
Additionally, Fraser got in touch with Paul Pickford, a Salford-based freelance artist, who said that for him the project was about “setting [the team] up with a platform to succeed”.
Mr Pickford guided the young people through the project by helping them tap into their creativity and explore how they could use art to reflect their experiences in care.
The young people were free to tailor the environment through art, DIY and decorating, to best reflect their journey through care.
Mr Pickford said: “What we really didn’t want was for this to be a template…to say now well you can go and paint triangles on your wall.
“This is very specific to here, to these young people and this has all come from their response to that idea of changing a space.”
The team chose every aspect of the transformation from colour, to composition, to design with guidance from Paul and Brad.
The quotations featured in the pieces are all written by young people accessing Next Step, one of them reads; “[f]amily means no-one is forgotten.”
Brad captured video diaries of the young people’s ambitions for the space in order to get an understanding of where the team wanted to go with the project.
Both Brad and Paul emphasised the importance of this being led by the young people, in order to make the space as comfortable as possible for future users of the service.
Brad said: “We were able to transfer all of the skills that went on the wall into their homes afterwards.
“Often times they’re in quite dank places…if they can go there and throw some colour in that can have a huge impact on your wellbeing.”
All of the artwork is now up, furniture in place and decorating completed at #NextStep Salford @gmyn
Super work from all the team, what a great environment you’ve all created- thanks to Fraser and @The_Lowry for your support. #youngpeoplecan pic.twitter.com/lQZGQRWXp9— Paul Pickford (@PaulPickford7) November 16, 2022
The team finished the project in mid-November and say the process has been “magnificent”, Brad continued: “It gave everyone a little corner to be themselves.”
Recent Comments