‘One participant reduced his methodone prescription by 70% following Streetwise Opera’s work’
Key Worker

Positive, tangible change

Streetwise Opera, alongwith other organisations working in arts and homelessness, has shown how the arts can have a profound and tangible positive effect on homeless and vulnerable people.

Our work is benefitial by giving our participants the confidence and self-esteem to be able to access the services of their centres and therefore move forward to experience tangible change in their lives. Many times key workers and centre managers tell us that through our work they were able to engage with a service-user for the first time and then link them into their services. We can demonstrate that when there is the dual support in place of arts and social care, people move forward faster and better. Impacts for our participanats include engagement with employment, education, more independent living, reduction in substance abuse and self-harm and increased contact with family and friends.

In 2006 we engaged the evaluation specialist Sue Hayton Associates to help us develop a new evaluation system and to create the now widely-used Evaluation Tree below.

In 2010 we began work with BOP Consultants to re-develop this system with the help of a grant from the London Housing Foundation. Our existing evaluation system will be strenghtened in various ways and include a new system of evaluating artist benefit. The new evaluation system will be pilotted in 2011/12.

The Evaluation Tree

As a method of reporting these changes, we have developed the Evaluation Tree representing outcomes (confidence, self-esteem, skills, enjoyment, social networks and participation) as the roots of the tree with secondary impacts in the lives of participants as the leaves of the tree – these can be very varied and include sustaining tenancies to tackling self-harm. Click here to see a recent Evaluation Tree Evaluation Tree Workshop Programme 08-09

The Evaluation Tree has been very popular since it was launched and has been called ‘An example of the best of the Third Sector’, Society Guardian.

One of the strengths of the  Tree is that the method recognises the diversity of participants, their needs, situations and the goals they have for themselves – the Tree records ‘distance travelled’ rather than assuming that all participants have the same ultimate goals. The Tree is backed up by continuous monitoring in the centres using a number of methods including participant focus groups, observation, questionnaires, interviews and the creation of a Personal Development Plan for participants to track their achievements. We involve participants, centre staff and artists in the evaluation process so results are triangulated. Finally and perhaps most importantly, Streetwise Opera is not afraid to admit when things go wrong and our work is much more beneficial because we have learned from mistakes.

External reports published featuring Streetwise Opera as Best Practise

• Department of Communities and Local Government – Streetwise Opera featured in new strategy to end rough sleeping, No One Left Out
  
• Department of Communities and Local Government - Streetwise Opera’s work at the Booth Centre in Manchester was an example of Best Practise in the Activating Places for Change programme
• Arts Council England report by Alan Dix on Adult Participatory Arts, Thinking It Through
  
• Arts Council England/OMTF report by Graham Devlin, 2010 Review of the Small and Middle Scale Opera and Music Theatre Sector in England
  
• Westminster City Council’s Comprehensive Area Assessment report, ‘Green Flag’ for excellence under the Strong, united and engaged communities paragraph: CAA Report
• New Philanthropy Capital’s Striking a Chord independent research paper where Streetwise is a Recommended Charity
• Homeless Link’s Positive activities for people experiencing deep exclusion and homelessness
• Streetwise’s work is an example of Best Practise on www.communitycare.com

Reports published by Streetwise Opera

• Report on Streetwise Opera British Council project in Japan 2009
• More to come…