Inspiring Futures: Footprints

The transformative potential of the arts for men and women in the criminal justice system is well-known to those working in the field yet there are significant challenges to capturing fully and systematically the multiple effects of arts participation. The ability to demonstrate impact is critical for arts organisations whose income is dependent on grants and commissions, particularly in a time of economic austerity. Many existing impact studies have been small-scale evaluations of individual projects in single arts disciplines with short follow-up timescales. Their findings frequently point to positive short-term effects but less is known about the collective and distinct contribution of the arts in criminal justice in the longer-term, for example, to social integration after imprisonment, to desistance from crime, and more broadly to quality of life and the artistic community. There are also important questions about what constitutes robust evidence of arts impact and about the relationship between arts practice and research evaluation. These are the issues that this project will address. The University of Cambridge and the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) will work in partnership with 8 organisations from different arts disciplines which engage with different groups of offenders and ex-offenders in prison and in the community across the UK: Geese Theatre; Clean Break; Good Vibrations; Only Connect; Synergy; The Irene Taylor Trust; Open Clasp; Helix Arts, and the Koestler Trust. Through this collaboration, this project will develop a theoretically informed understanding of the contribution of the performing arts in criminal justice and a technically innovative and sustainable participatory evaluation research methodology. Through these activities it aims to facilitate the expansion and embedding of arts initiatives in criminal justice settings and realise the beneficial potential of the arts for people in the criminal justice system.

A central goal of this project is to develop and facilitate the implementation of an innovative evaluation methodology for arts interventions in criminal justice and other educational and welfare settings. Through the Institute of Criminology's (IOC's) contact with practitioners in prisons and probation and its research collaboration with the NCJAA we aim to maximise the potential for the research to change the landscape of the arts in criminal justice and more broadly across educational and social welfare sectors.

a) Partner arts organisations: the arts organisations participating in the NCJAA 'Inspiring Futures' initiative will be given access to the research instruments including the digital app to adapt and roll-out in their own programmes. In addition, the NCJAA and IOC will facilitate a knowledge exchange event to share learning from the evaluation as part of a 1-day project conference. Overall, the arts organisations participating in Inspiring Futures will benefit from a far more wide-ranging, comparative and detailed evaluation of their work than before, helping them to understand their impact on the participants they reach. Their evaluation skills and resources will be increased: they will be part of a cutting-edge arts impact evaluation community using a theoretically informed evaluation approach with access to an innovative digital research resource

b) Arts organisations, criminal justice policy makers and practitioners: one of the NCJAA's key roles is to act as a conduit between its members and local and national policy-makers including the Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and criminal justice managers. Working with the NCJAA will help the IOC to ensure that its research findings reach these stakeholders and commissioners, leaving them better informed about the impact of arts projects in the criminal justice system and with a better understanding of how such interventions might be used most successfully. As well as increasing understanding and knowledge, these outcomes will help arts organisations to clarify their case for support and resources to key stakeholders and commissioners.

c) People in or at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system: users of the arts programmes will be collaborators in the development and piloting of the evaluation methodology which will facilitate the development of their personal and social skills. In the longer term, the project aims to be of general benefit to people in the criminal justice system, providing them with access to arts interventions and supporting their desistance journey.The aim is that the findings of this research will make it easier - at a national and local policy level - for arts organisations to reach and work with people in or at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system and to benefit them in the long term.

d) The project conference will be publicised to policy makers and practitioners involved in arts evaluations in education, youth and therapeutic and other social welfare settings. The conference audience will learn about the wider potential of the participatory methodology and the use of digital technology in social science evaluations and will have access to the project's online materials and training resources.

e) Staff in criminal justice settings, families of people in the criminal justice system and the general public will gain further insights into the transformative potential of the arts in criminal justice which may serve to change attitudes and (re)generate social bonds and networks.