Blue drum action plan 2014 (dec draft)

Action Plan January – December 2014

About Blue Drum

Blue Drum aims to make cultural rights real in the context of children, families and communities in poverty. We are a small organisation linked to individuals and organisations (i)

Alert to new opportunities for FRCs in the Meitheal – A National Practice Model;

(ii)

Campaigning on cultural rights and participation in the cultural life of the country with the Equality Rights Alliance, Claiming Our Future and the FRC National Forum;

(iii)

Revaluing, renewing and reinventing community arts as a contributor to child, family and community flourishing and well-being in Ireland.

Our current work is organised around  An annual work programme submitted to the Child and Family Agency;  An arts policy analysis study funded by EU Culture which concludes in May 2014;  Three part-time staff and 12 independents who deliver parts of the work programme.

The 2014 Action Plan is funded through the Child and Family Agency

About Meitheal

Meitheal, A National Practice Model introduced by the Child and Family Agency in 2013, is about a new way of working together at local level. It will work out the roles and responsibilities at local service delivery level and ensure that children and families are not ‘bounced’ between processes. In this environment, Blue Drum and all Family Resource Centres, have to achieve tangible results based upon a precise agenda that can be appraised and evaluated. For instance, the added value that Blue Drum can offer is to be a catalyst for new forms of cooperation. Our work continues to be located within two National Outcomes for child and family support. These are: (i) Supported in active Learning (National Outcome 2) and (ii) Part of positive networks of family, friends, neighbours and the community / Included and participating in society (National Outcome 5).

Work Programme 2014

Goal 1: To deliver the second year of the cycle of developmental activities called Happy Parent Initiative.

1) Roll out to 6 new FRCs; 2) Develop Happy Parent descriptor template for FRCs to ensure greater evenness of delivery and for communications to groups e.g. HSE Regional Managers, National Forum, etc; 3) Reflective Seminar for all those who participated in Happy Parent to learn more about the significance of HP, future links to the Meitheal framework and development of a new programme for children aged 0-3yrs; 4) Develop the Family Heirloom and Imagination Club in Droichead na Daoine FRC, Kerry, Southill Community Centre, Limerick and Ballyboden FRC in Dublin. If no funding becomes available from an application to Katherine Howard Foundation we will try to test this new work in a more scaled-back way; Need identified by B. Cullen Review of test phase, feedback sessions among facilitators and growing demand from FRC’s.

Input: Project leader (E. Phillips), Project support (G. Keogan), Vivienne Byrne (facilitator), Lisa Crowne (facilitator). Memorandum of Agreement with local FRCs. Output: (i) Delivery of 3 x 6 workshops to 40 parents. (ii) HP Programme descriptor. (iii) Stakeholders Seminar, (iv) new developmental activity testing which is dependent on additional funding from Katherine Howard Foundation to local test centres.

The 2014 Action Plan is funded through the Child and Family Agency

Goal 2: To provide an open door about community art in child and family support through information, advice and mentoring.

1) Exchanges and liaise in response to the needs of all FRCs who contact Blue Drum; 2) Keep track of hot issues for FRCs by regular visits, phone calls, email and e-links newsletter; 3) Organise We Are Family #2 , a showcase day in association with a cluster of FRCs; 4) Develop the website into a ‘go to’ website for information on issues, research, news, etc. and generate more content for Facebook; 5) Plan for the unplanned and respond to signals emerging in 2014; 6) Continue to secure national profiling opportunities for Blue Drum’s work with FRCs e.g.

Village Magazine; Need identified by annual summer questionnaire, one-to-one exchanges and SPEAK reports.

Input: Project leader (G. Keogan), Design ( Lorena Zanoni).

Output: (i) Summary Action Plan 2014 circulated to all FRCs, (ii) 6 Blue Notes newsletters circulated; (iii) Open door for one-to-one phone exchanges for local facilitators, project funding applications, etc, (iv) Tailored Needs Questionnaire 2014, (v) Visits to 6 FRCs to hear what is happening on the ground, (vi) Ongoing updates via website, Facebook, podcasts, etc, (vii) We Are Family Showcase Day 2014 scheduled to meet the needs of participating FRCs. Goal 3: To revalue, renew and reinvent community arts in FRCs. 1) Publish and launch the Community Culture Strategy (June 2014) in conjunction with a seminar about the City (Re)Searchers Project in May 2014; 2) Enable the foundation phase of a new platform for national mainstreaming platform Community Arts in FRCs through training programme delivered by artway of thinking; 3) Test the need for Dementia Creative Reminiscence Training Based on the proven model of Remembering Yesterday Caring Today in FRCs by supporting the delivery of a training workshop in partnership with Representatives from the European Reminiscence Network (ERN) for development workers and follow-up with review about future potential ; 4) Organise the Artizen Autumn School as follows: a. Seminar/Workshop: ‘Untapped Capital’ exploring community arts enterprise in child and family work and exploring how activists can develop entrepreneurial alertness to cultural rights (Autumn 2014); b. Continuing dialogues about community arts and cultural rights. Follow up on the 2013 roundtable, Art of Campaigning with Claiming Our Future and Equality Rights Alliance.

Need identified by Pedagogy of Community Arts training in 2013, Findings of the City (Re)Searches Study 2012-14, Dáil Committee on Utilising the Arts to Combat Disadvantage and Community Culture Strategy and SPEAK 2012.

Input: E Carroll, City (Re)Searchers (Ireland).

Output: Strategy Publication (1); Pamphlets (7), Seminars (2), Training Programme (1); testing the feasibility for future Dementia related community arts work;

The 2014 Action Plan is funded through the Child and Family Agency

Governance 2014 Board

Organisation

Mark McCollum

Individual

Community Drama

Mick Daly

HSE, Co. Clare

Juvenile Justice

Mary Doheny

Northside Partnership

Community Development

Ken Keogh

Individual

Volunteering

Jennifer O’Brien

Southill Community Centre

Organisation development

Con Christeson

CAT Institute, St Louis.

Project Bud, St. Louis USA.

Organisation and Management 2014 Ed Carroll

Director with responsibility for Community Culture

Eleanor Phillips

Happy Parent Initiative

Gillian Keogan

Company admin / liaison

Lorena Zanoni Brun

Design and Web

Vivienne Byrne

Facilitator, Happy Parent

Lisa Crowne

Facilitator, Happy Parent

Volunteer/Associate 2014 Neil O’Flanagan

Northsiders Museum / Urban Planner

The 2014 Action Plan is funded through the Child and Family Agency

Address: Blue Drum The Outreach Centre Clonshaugh Drive | Dublin 17 | Ireland | T: +353 1 877 1446. www.bluedrum.ie

The 2014 Action Plan is funded through the Child and Family Agency