Blackpool Grand Theatre is delighted to present at this year’s International Resilience Revolution Conference (#ResRev22). The theatres Creative Learning team will be presenting three incredible seminars.

Story-Led Resilient Practice, using the arts for social change; Shaking up the system with Shakespeare which is led by Grand Theatre Young Ambassadors; and finally, Evaluation- Activism with a twist, a challenge to adult-led evaluation, which shares the work of the theatre’s Junior Evaluators.

Resilience Revolution

The Grand, a co-leader in Blackpool’s Resilience Revolution and has worked in partnership with the local lottery funded HeadStart project which aims to strengthen local children and young people’s mental health and well-being. It also works to understand and challenge the barriers that children and young people face in their communities, schools, families and finds ways to minimize these and to empower young people.

The theatre has been part of this town-wide approach since 2016 and has developed its ‘Story-Led Resilience Programme’ which has been externally funded. Through this programme the theatre uses the stories on our stage, participative arts and coaching to offer a range or projects locally and nationally. In Blackpool 1,000 children have taken part in active Grand Theatre projects like; The Story Squad – creative actives linked to stage productions, Illuminate – a project illuminating stories in partnership with Lightpool and local artist, Tales Retold – School-based developing English literacy skills, Arts Awards – Digital covering Photography, Animation and Graphic Design, the Royal Shakespeare Company Associate Schools programme – key to making Shakespeare accessible and engaging in the classroom, and finally the Junior Artists programme which explores wellbeing and sense of belonging through stories.

The Grand is proud to be part of Resilience Revolution and being able to share some of our young people’s work and look forward to hearing other presenters share theirs. The Grand’s mission is to offer opportunities to enjoy, participate and learn through theatre and aims to; ‘Offer a distinctive, rich and varied programme of quality arts and entertainment using our artistic programme and heritage assets as tools to power participation, learning, resilience and positive experiences.’

International Resilience Revolution Conference 2022

The conference will provide a unique and energetic learning space, with young people, academics, parents/carers, practitioners, researchers and community members all coming together to learn from one another. An exciting and informative combination of research, practice-based evidence and lived experience will have the schedule packed with insightful keynotes, co-delivered workshops and activities all linked to resilience approaches.

Adam Knight, Blackpool Grand Theatre Chief Executive said ‘The team are delighted to be presenting not one, but three seminars for the 2022 Conference. All three of the presentations offer a key insight into the work the theatre has been delivering connected with Resilience.’

The conference is being organised by a complex and passionate partnership – the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice at the University of Brighton in collaboration with the social enterprise Boingboing and HeadStart Blackpool, which is led by Blackpool Council, supported by the UK’s National Lottery Community Fund.

For three years, the University of Brighton’s Centre of Resilience for Social Justice has been working its own community network, Boingboing, alongside Blackpool Council and other partners on a Resilience Revolution which started in Blackpool. The focus is using resilience approaches to develop new ways of working right across a whole town to support young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

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