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

Positive change for homeless people

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 people.

The way we see our work as being benefitial is 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 have countless examples of people joining our group with very little confidence and before long their pride is restored and major impacts in their lives begin to happen such as engagement with employment, education, agency services, more independent living 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 – below is an overview of the results:

The Evaluation Tree

As a method of reporting these changes, we have developed the Evaluation Tree representing the growth  outcome (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 we instigated it this year and has been embraced by the centres right up to Homeless Link the national body that represents homeless centres. One of the reasons why it is effective is that it is clear and shows the link and relationship between outcomes of arts activities such as raising confidence and more tangible impacts that follow on in the lives of participants.

The other strength of the Tree is that the method recognises the diversity of participants, their needs, situations and the goals they have for themselves – for some participants who have encountered homelessness following an event e.g. an accident, they may want to get back into work or education and attain the kind of life they had before the event; for other participants with, perhaps, enduring mental health issues or learning difficulties, small steps into more independent living, going out more, getting back in touch with family members or joining courses may be a huge step for them and their ultimate goal.

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
• 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…