Trapped in Zone One presented Club Zone One in Bethnal Green, in partnership with Parkview Tenants and Residents Association.
As part of our continued youth provision programme we hosted a 3-month programme following the governments Covid-19 guidance from October to December 2021 for young females aged 10-18 from Tower Hamlets, providing creative workshops and sport sessions, with nutritional lunchtime meals provided for a local social enterprise, Canvas Cafe.
Over the course of the project we engaged with 20 young females, hosting creative workshops exploring different themes from nature and the environment, community, health, goals for the New Year, to enable a positive change and encourage a range of creative ideas from the young people! It was great to provide them a framework and watch them add their own personality to it. They had some wonderful ideas about their new year goals, we was also impressed by their perseverance when making the zines - as there were a few tricky stages in the process yet they all kept going and helped each other out when needed.
During one of our sessions we hosted creative discussion on community and health, with a guest presenter, Hollie Thoupos, from St Margaret’s House. This activity enabled the group to draw and write, providing ideas about the community as part of the Creative Health Zone research project with the Greater London Authority.
Providing a mix of weekly activities of creativity and sport helped us to work with new young participants through word of mouth in the community, and showed us that parents appreciated the work we hosted in Bethnal Green and requested for more of these provisions to continue as for some it is not easy to find projects suitable for young females who are keen on creativity and their schools are not provide these activities due to shortage of funding.
For us it was great to see how a session of creative and fitness activities worked so well together. They complement each other: creativity in artistic projects encourages creativity in fitness sessions, which results in a more interactive, lively and fun experience for participants. Exercise routines had to expand beyond the indoor fitness environment, and out onto the playing field, basketball court and local park, often combined with tasks connected with the art activity, such as collecting items for that part of the session, all while exercising.
The most significant successes we noticed by one of our staff member was how the young females were more aware about how to eat healthy, how to stay fit and create art in different mediums. Moreover, the confidence and safe space created was heavily noticeable in all the sessions no matter if there were any visitors. This meant our young participants weren’t afraid to be creative and made what they wanted.
Quotes from Project Staff:
“This was a fantastic project to be a part of. To see participants grow in number and strength each week was incredibly rewarding and to watch them grow in confidence is very satisfying. Encouraging creativity in an area (fitness) which often doesn’t get much creative consideration provides an excellent opportunity for young people to get involved in the session more, which ultimately delivers a more effective outcome for them.”
“One of the nicest things I heard from a participant was about how they spent 2 hours after a session carrying on with the creative task which was really lovely. It’s so great to know that they are enjoying the activities provided.”
“You can feel the happiness they radiate when having control of their own creativity.”
Quotes from Participants:
"We was able to take part in art workshops and make new friends, something that is not offered to us and hope such projects continues in supporting young people".
“Being able to part in the art activity is something I have enjoyed in this project, learning different creative methods to express myself”.
“Enjoyable & inspirational. The sessions helped to develop my confidence in engaging with the art activities and the group”.
