Community Justice

Creativity as a Catalyst for Change

In 2021 (once again peak pandemic), I had the privilege of working with Street Cones (now the Creative Change Collective), delivering online creative workshops to individuals who had been given a Community Payback Order (community service). It was a unique and incredibly rewarding experience, showcasing the power of art to foster self-reflection and drive positive change.

Many faced tough challenges like addiction or joblessness, and this initiative aimed to offer a safe, creative space for self-reflection. The big goal was to help them process their experiences, understand their journey through the justice system, and find new motivations to avoid future troubles.

Remote Facilitation: Safety, Engagement, and Collaboration

Our workshop series typically ran for 12 weeks, all on Microsoft Teams. I teamed up with another facilitator: they'd lead the first hour, getting everyone into a creative headspace, then I'd take over the second hour. My part was all about group and individual exercises designed to spark imagination and encourage self-reflection.

Street Cones had one golden rule: no direct personal sharing. Instead, we created a safe distance by having participants build characters inspired by their own lives, without ever explicitly naming real details. My main job was to guide everyone's ideas into a single, cohesive script, making sure every single participant felt genuine ownership over the final piece.

Working online, especially during the peak of the pandemic, came with its own set of puzzles. Keeping the energy high and everyone engaged through a screen was a constant focus, and I quickly learned to tweak exercises for seamless remote collaboration. We worked with folks of all ages and backgrounds, so being flexible was key to making sure everyone felt heard. And yes, motivating people who initially had zero interest in creativity or self-reflection was a fun challenge! Crafting content that gently brought them around to finding new creative outlets and safely exploring their own thoughts, all while keeping things fun and productive, was incredibly satisfying. Even with participants facing tech hiccups or inconsistent availability, we kept things moving, always hitting our project timelines.

Snippet of a character building workshop plan. E.g 'Hey, hi. hello': how would a character express themself in a given situation? Inviting participants to consider different communication styles and how they might be perceived.

So, did it work?

The evaluations for these workshops were consistently strong. It was amazing to see that up to 100% of participants reported their time on the project made them less likely to re-offend. Some even discovered a new passion for writing or creating characters. For others, it simply offered much-needed social contact during a really isolating time.

This project was a powerful reminder that problem-solving skills – whether you're debugging code or guiding a creative workshop – are truly universal. It was incredibly rewarding to see the real-world impact and feel the tangible difference we were making in people's lives.