Facilitation
My facilitation work is extremely varied (which is why I love it!). On any given week I can be running or producing workshops in schools, youth centres and prisons, as well as one-off sessions in pretty much any setting you can imagine. You can read about my most recent projects in my portfolio, or see below for information on my most regular projects:
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Young Writers' City
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For the past five years I have been working part-time as a freelance Project Producer for New Writing North's Young Writers' City programme, which delivers in-classroom and extra curricular creative writing sessions for pupils at inner city schools in the North East. I am based at Excelsior Academy in the West End of Newcastle, a busy and diverse school with a strongly established music and performing arts department.
A producer in this context acts as a conduit between school staff, New Writing North staff and our groups of young people. We bring in at least three different guest writers each term, who specialise in everything from short story writing to rapping, and work with students to create a finished product they are proud of! I attend every session we run, deputise for the guest writer when needed and monitor student wellbeing as well as looking out for follow-on opportunities for the young people who show real promise.
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Teaching in prisons
In the spring of 2023 I was commissioned by Kielder Observatory and the Joicey Trust to work on an astronomy-themed writing project with learners at HMP Northumberland (you can read all about it here). This was my first experience of working within the criminal justice system, and since then I've been lucky enough to be invited back several times, to different prisons, to deliver creative writing projects on a range of themes. The projects vary in length, from blocks of three to twelve weeks, and have had outcomes such as short stories, mini zines and a poetry anthology.
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The education provision in more than fifty prisons is provided by Novus, who have been instrumental in recruiting learners to participate in the projects, promoting and celebrating their great work, and helping integrate what they've learnt in the sessions with their work in subjects like English and Creative Enterprise. This has been such a rewarding new partnership and I hope it continues!
