Sharing and debate event: Thriving Together: Partnership and Collaboration, Royal Exchange Theatre (Manchester), 2 August 2011

What value could a regional agency add to your work with children and young people?
Audit, information and advocacy: One voice Add weight raise awareness Raising the profile of arts and cultural learning Lobby the government to keep creativity on the curriculum Marketing work in a way that ensures the buy-in of teachers Coordination of marketing / promotion to schools and young people

Quality and excellence, CPD and networking: Help us to meet people we otherwise wouldnt, with space to create new partnerships Regional database of contact details for experienced creative's details of what they have done, with whom, etc. Advice and support through networks collective wisdom Peer review of policy development the low down Opportunities to connect more widely with practice within the sector Sharing learning and expertise Share evaluation and learning so were not all reinventing the wheel Common evaluation tools and methods to assess impacts across the board Find a unified way of measuring the impact / value of arts on young people tracking through the years Connecting sectors, making new links: Spot / broker working partnerships

Coherence common practice, language and vision: Coherence across: the region; art forms; different kinds of organisations NPOs, private sector, etc. Oversee a more joined-up approach, with the potential to develop wider progression routes Vision Identify the gaps in current delivery and help us to fill them Joint funding bids / coordination Share physical resources create pool of cameras, instruments, etc. for projects across the sector Facilitate shared venue spaces for activities to happen

Offering a critical eye, inspiring change: Advise

Lead and challenge discussions

How would a fantastic bridge organisation operate?

We have useful information and expertise, which we widely share Accessible We genuinely listen, consider and respond We work broadly with a range of partners We promise only what we believe we can deliver

Themed table discussions: What is our ideal future when it comes to Partnerships and Collaboration? What skills and resources do we already have? How can we work together to achieve our goal?
As a sector what are our strengths and what do we need to build on to ensure future success and strength? Strengths
Pathways and Signposting Providing pathways to professionalism Evaluation Advocacy Developing case studies and rigorous evidence about the impact of the work we undertake Self depreciation Respectful of organisations unique selling points and areas of specialism We are flexible We are resilient We are strong because we are here today involved in conversations that shows a strong, inspired sector. We are good at talking, listening and understanding Collaborating / Sharing Sharing information and ideas. Creating an infrastructure for that to take place within. Encouraging talking to each other We share the same ideals talking to young people, reflective, learning and collaborating. We offer a range of opportunities for young people

 We are great at being creative and innovative we are experts in problem solving We have interesting partnerships with academic partners, for research and skills development. We can be inclusive access for all children and young people. We inspire young people to seek brighter futures We are hard working so we can achieve our aims and support children and young people We have energy and commitment We are innovative and forward thinking as a sector We believe in what we do We are hard working We are consistent in our work and focus

Areas to build on
Check out other models of sharing - such as Cool or LARC in Liverpool. Act as a collective voice Share resources There are already a strong network of forums for collaboration geographical and within art forms and target groups. But can we join these separate conversations together? We are an ideas generation and we need to encourage that more We need to develop opportunities for young people to be leaders We do and should provide creative and exciting activities We should be engaging our communities We build partnerships with schools problem solving those schools where collaboration can be difficult because of setting. We should be consulting with children and young people Reaching the hard to reach increasing participation Ownership of lots of youth led projects. We already have groups of similar organisations that meet regular to share practice and develop the offer across our provision We have lots of young people focused venues and organisations but not enough

How can we work together to achieve our ideal future?

We must do this... Lobbying the government for cultural offers to YP Common evaluation framework to build evidence for lobbying. Communication pathways/new evaluation processes/format. New set of values to measure success and impact. LISTEN and respond to demand. Peer evaluation. Be open with our assets / resources / intelligence Consultation with users - find the gaps

Preserve existing brokerage systems. Effective arts in schools services. Reassure CM wont undermine that. Map whats there and what quality is how effective responsive to changing context.

Wed like to do this... Share back office services - HR, procurement, utilities... Facilitating partnerships to lead to joint working and accessing commissioning opportunities. Annual gatherings to share practice experience and knowledge. Peer evaluation Tracking young people across different orgs. Quality as well as hours... Direct programming... be smarter with pots of funding ...procurement - special purpose vehicles & consortia to unlock funding Drive dialogue achieve greater impact. Demonstrable and communicate not onerous. Raise the bar for commissions they demand more if they are non arts. Get local right consistency on how brokerage happens nuanced role out. Wouldnt it be great if...? Have a party awards to celebrate our achievements org & YP Not to scrabble for same pot of money/ application open everyone If schools understood the process by which arts, culture happens e.g. not just parachuting in as projects. If there was less duplication & knowledge expertise/experience loss. As a city region there is an opportunity to draw and construct map of what is out there for C&YP. Who is doing what and how quality, sustained activity etc. This is a timely opportunity which will only be available for the next year... Bridging social capital connect YP to others elsewhere encourage mobility aspiration

What should Curious Minds be thinking about or doing as a bridge organisation? What challenges are we likely to face and how can we overcome them?
Persuading decision makers how are you going to do this? Establishing a shared vision and reasons for engaging

 Clarity in your key conversations with networks streamlines these networks and avoids duplication Define clear routes in and through for children and young people Get to know USP resources within organisations and facilitate matchmaking Regional commissioning quality framework Provide quality freelancers build new relationships Signpost to provision Us a culture vultures peer support platform Open resources, inclusive of contacts list who was there Define what schools are looking for what we as arts orgs are looking for Share tenders and grants across the sector and within it Challenging people to raise the bar Peer evaluation sourcing critical friendships Need to ensure Curious Minds is diverse and not uniform Ensure we all have clarity of role and relationship Ensure you are a partner and not just the quality police Ensure you are courageous Make sure you are standing within the conversation not outside of it Accountability set clear guides on how arts/cultural orgs are accountable to you and how you are accountable to arts/cultural orgs Semantics to create a common and inclusive language for the arts and Arts a bilingual flow e.g. Argot long perceived in prison settings. Children and young people how we talk about them, what do they want to be called. Cant come across as patronizing Freelance networks Also to manage networks within networks How Curious Minds talks with all sectors Mapping in a changing climate how to gather, aggregated and communicate avoid duplication, The balance between the formal and non-formal offer Approaching young people as consumers and mapping their journeys Finding, mapping, bringing together existing forums Learning from (not duplicating) existing successes i.e. COOL Panda make similar models and appropriate to each other Give us space within events to talk freely germinate partnerships Other partners young people, creative professionals, voluntary sector, youth employment, education, commercial sector Be open minded, creativity isnt only the arts

 Build collaboration with non-arts partners i.e. Zion Virgin link Manage expectations we cant do any more for less!! But we can do it less and better. How do we get the organisations that arent here to engage? Will people travel to Clitheroe etc? But not fair to ask Cumbrians to travel to us. Split geographically, 2 events partnerships likely to be more local Perception of Curious Minds role asking for input from us now, but risk of being seen to have favourites. How to let everyone know. Dont be limited to existing networks make invitations clear Mapping and audit cross regional Take away the inward facing mindset More events speed dating like to help build relationships and share provision Curious Minds should be leading that collaboration Making links into other interesting sectors sports, arts, health, business Bring arts to settings that wouldnt normally have arts Commissioning sense bringing partners outside the sector to the table to enable funding Brokering relationships for the benefits of children and young people business, corporate social responsibility Look at creative industries, not just art forms that are traditional Similar networking events with young people forums that you can use as your most important resource Raising awareness of arts/cultural/creative industries to schools all schools.

Acrostics and Haikus Youth Led Organic Understanding Needs Generating Funds Provision Equality Optimistic Pro-active Leaders Evolution

Creative Outward Facing Listening Learning Arts Brokering Original Realistic Active Talking Educating Aspiration Resourceful Transparent Appeal to people Who dont care for art that much? As well as converts Invite everyone New faces outside this room Are also curious Find and map learning Partner, people, open-minds But do less better