Building Trust Through Partnership
We’re pleased to share our first blog, written by Susanne Burns, who is supporting the Thrive Project as an evaluator.
As an evaluator I am fortunate in being able to work on a huge range of different projects at any one time and this is both challenging and inspiring. One project that I ended 2023 with was the Thrive project, a Youth Music funded music intervention taking place in refuges and working with Children and their Mothers in Sunderland. The partners Wearside Women in Need (WWiN) and We Make Culture (WMC) had invited me to provide evaluation support to the programme in early Autumn 2023 and the programme will run until September 2024 with workshops in the refuges as well as in the community.
The programme is designed on the assumption that music interventions in Domestic Violence settings will enhance the wellbeing of children and young people and their mothers and will contribute to strengthening parent-child bonding. In doing so, it is felt that it will also positively impact the practice of WWiN staff and the musicians delivering the work.
The working partnership between the two professional teams is already inspiring and augurs well for the future development of the programme and its ability to generate impact and change. The following conversation demonstrates this well:
Musician: “ I feel like I am gatekeeping myself. I am mindful of sensitivities and saying something that might be triggering.”
WWiN Team Member: “Don’t overthink it. If your intention is good just go with it. You don’t know the triggers so something may trigger a thing that needs to be surfaced. It helps to build resilience and adds to their toolkit. It potentially opens up the therapeutic process.”
There is already evidence of impact on children and mothers after a few months despite the limitations of the settings and the fact that there is a fast turnaround of families. This means there is limited opportunity to trace progression and change in the children.
“You can’t think about this project in the same way as you do others.” (Musician)
The impact on the musicians’ practice is also already becoming evident.
“It is challenging, rewarding, humbling, inspiring and moving to be allowed into the lives of families at such a transitional point.” (Musician)
We have already surfaced learning in some key areas that may have implications for others working in DA settings:
the need to balance flexibility and structure;
the strategies that can be deployed to shift agency and power;
how to build trust in a context where trust has been destroyed;
how to generate safe spaces for creativity, enjoyment and relaxation;
the strategies that help to bond mothers and children as well as those creating a sense of community for those who have been systematically isolated.
We have built an approach to evaluating the programme which is owned and integrated, which is honest and open and seeks to surface learning and this is being welcomed by all involved. It is an exciting project and one in which I am delighted to be playing a role.
Dr Susanne Burns is an Independent Management Consultant with over 40 years of senior management experience in the cultural sector. Her work has encompassed dance, theatre, music and the visual arts. She has a diverse portfolio of clients, including the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Rubicon Dance, North East Photography Network, National Glass Centre and Fevered Sleep. She specialises in evaluation and research and has led several major evaluation projects including the longitudinal evaluation of In Harmony Liverpool, the Co-Creating Change Network and Create London. She has carried out major research programmes including the Dance Mapping work for Arts Council England and has extensive experience of working in Higher Education, She was awarded her DProf from Middlesex University in 2011 and is an experienced trainer, mentor and coach.