Finding Self Through Dance
Supporting ethnically diverse communities in Colchester
Providing a free dance and music programme to children in ethnically diverse communities, helped to alleviate the pressures on parents during the cost of living crisis. Finding Self Through Dance has not only benefitted parents in saving money, but has also resulted in their children being happier and healthier.
Caves of Hope Academy is a vibrant, innovative and ambitious arts centre in Colchester, which welcomes young artists from ethnically diverse communities to come together. The Finding Self Through Dance programme was evolved to help improve the mental and physical health of young people in the area.
Active Essex were pleased to support the ‘Finding Self Through Dance’ project, which was funded via the partnership between Active Essex and the London Marathon Foundation following the Ford RideLondon-Essex 2023 event. Dance accompanied with music plays a fundamental role in ethnic diverse communities’ identity, culture, heritage and spiritual beliefs, and it is a powerful medium, which can enable people to connect with others and themselves. It can stir memories, emotions and powerfully resonate with feelings, helping individuals to express themselves and communicate with others. Involving young people in the design of the programme, helped to engage more participants and created a space where people felt comfortable to get active and have fun.
Since Covid-19, many of the young people in the community lost the desire for outside activity and would instead indulge in video and online games, which would subsequently affect their physical and mental health. Since ‘Finding Self Through Dance’ started, the project has seen a lot more young people come out and engage with different activities. The funding from Active Essex has allowed the group to expand to a larger venue, increase the number of staff, and subsequently increase the number of young people they work with.
In addition to improved health and wellbeing among the young people, participants have also made new friends and built new relationships. It has also influenced parents to form a group whereby they now meet regularly to share food and discuss other community issues that themselves and their children face in day-to-day life.
Key Learnings
Co-creation
Involve young people in the structure and design of activities to increase engagement
Barriers
There is a barrier when working with young people if you tell them what to do
Ownership
Allow participants to take ownership of the activities so that they feel involved
Time
Give young people time to engage in activities if they lack confidence and self esteem
Caves of Hope Ministries asked young people in their community what they wanted, and from this, devised a project that provided dance and music activities. The project engaged young people from the start and gave them an opportunity to design the sessions leading to them being active on a regular basis.Ian Duggan, Assistant Relation Manager North Essex
