ENYAN

National Campaign Update 02/2012: ‘Youth Arts Transforms Lives – FACT!’

ENYAN is delighted to provide a summary of the main achievements of the Artswork national campaign ‘Youth Arts Transforms Lives – FACT!’ and the impact that the campaign has made to date:

• Over 120 case studies spanning all 9 English regions and a wide range of artforms have been showcased, drawing attention to fresh evidence to demonstrate the transformational power of the arts to make positive changes to the lives of young people
• The campaign has been supported by a wealth of leading sector professionals across the creative, cultural, youth and community sectors- 12 exemplary articles have been produced which focus on ways in which engagement in the arts and culture results in real, definable and unequivocal positive outcomes for young people
• The evidence from the campaign has reached 89 countries to date and there have been over 20,000 downloads of the official campaign resource
• 68 organisations promoted the Online Campaign Day in November 2011 and many other ENYAN members utilised the campaign stationary in their general publicity
• 34 individuals were celebrated and commended for their direct work with young people and the arts at grass roots level and awarded the title ‘ENYAN National Campaign Champion’
• A new National Youth Arts Portal already accessed by over 1,500 people now provides a facility to upload youth arts project videos and share best practice and experiences
• An extensive resources and web links list for those interested in pursuing additional research studies, surveys, reports and statistics can be accessed via the campaign resource
• The campaign resource is being used by ENYAN members as a tool for them to lobby for sustained investment in Youth Arts locally, regionally and nationally
• The campaign successfully drew the attention of government ministers- notably Tim Loughton, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families (link to Tim Loughton's response)

The campaign resource demonstrated- through exceptional case studies and evidence – the transformational power of the arts to make positive changes to the lives of young people.

The campaign has illustrated the real and positive impact that participation in the arts has on the lives, aspirations, motivation and self esteem of young people including those who are particularly at risk.

Artswork would like to thank all of the young people who contributed to the campaign, all ENYAN members, the ENYAN National Steering Group, ENYAN Regional Advisory Panels of youth arts specialists and ENYAN National Campaign Champions for their contributions.

Artswork must also give special thanks to Sir Ken Robinson, Patron of Artswork, who provided a special endorsement for the campaign resource and actively promoted the campaign to his 90 000+ followers on Twitter. We would also like to thank all other sector professionals and bodies who have provided endorsements, keynote articles and acted as leading advocates for the campaign.

Access the campaign resource via: http://artswork.org.uk/campaign-2011. For more information about Artswork’s campaign projects contact: info@artswork.org.uk or t: 023 80332491.