Red is the new black A fashion show project by Interest Link Roxburgh

Children’s Group

End of project report

Contents

Introduction

Who was involved?

Making our outfits

Learning the dance

Rehearsals

The fashion show

What did everyone think?

Conclusion

Introduction

Interest Link Roxburgh Children’s Group meets every second Monday in Hawick.

The aim of the group is to work with children and young people with learning

disabilities and support them to:

- Make more friends

- Feel happier

- Feel more confident

- Have better self-esteem

- Have better social skills

This is achieved through running a variety of projects with service users and peer

mentors (young people of a similar age, who do not have a learning disability).

From January to April 2018, the project was a recycled fashion show working

under the title of “Red is the new black”.

The project involved a number of different aspects: designing and creating a piece

or pieces of clothing; learning a dance; learning how to walk a catwalk; and finally,

putting all the hard work together for an open night to parents. A lot of skills were

used throughout the project too, from working as part of a team to having a go at

sewing. Through the involvement of a choreographer, a photographer and an

older service user (from the 16 – 25 Young People’s Service in Roxburgh), the

service users also had opportunities to meet and work with new people.

Special thanks go to The Well, the venue where we made the outfits and practised

the dance, and to Burnfoot Community Hub, where the dress rehearsal and

fashion show itself took place.

Apart from the introduction and conclusion, this report of the project has been

written imaginatively from the point of view of the service users.

Rebecca Duffell, Assistant Branch Coordinator, May 2018

Who was involved?

Lots of people helped us to make our fashion show a success, including…

Staff

Val, Branch Coordinator

Rebecca, Assistant Branch

Coordinator

Emma, Choreographer

Sarah, Sessional Worker

Susan, Project Administrator

Hannah, Photographer

Volunteers

Carmel

Alison

Lynn

Julie

Peer mentors

Abbi

Kira

Lorna

Josh

Christianne

Sophie

Niamh S

Claire

Kaden

Service users – YPS Roxburgh

Craig

…and, of course, all of us!

Service users – Children’s Group

Paula, 13 years old Niamh R, 15 years old

Blair, 13 years old Jade, 15 years old

Matthew, 12 years old

Kacey, 14 years old

Liam, 10 years old

Ryan, 15 years old

Making our outfits

On 8th January, Val told us about our new project – a recycled fashion show called

“Red is the new black”. We were all excited about starting something new. Liam

even had some ideas for how to pose on the catwalk already! Rebecca brought in

some worksheets where we could design our own t-shirts and shoes.

We also drew ideas for clothes for the fashion show. Jade chose to do a scarf and

Lorna helped her to design it using coloured pens. Val gave us giant sheets of

paper and we had fun drawing around each other. We then used the outlines to

draw life-sized clothes. Kacey and Blair loved this bit so much they drew around

each other twice! Christianne and Niamh S had so many ideas that Niamh decided

they had better start writing them all down before they forgot. Paula had fun

designing a really colourful pair of high heeled shoes.

By the end of the session, we all had an idea of what

clothes we wanted to design and wear down the

catwalk. We told Rebecca and Val and they then

searched around different charity shops in the

Borders to find red and black clothes for us to use.

When they brought all the clothes in for us on 22nd

January, we could really get stuck in to making our

designs come to life.

Here we are planning

and working on our

designs.

We worked on our outfits on 8th and 22nd January and the 19th March.

Unfortunately it snowed lots in March so we had to cancel a session on the 5th,

which only gave us three sessions to make our outfits. It was hard work to get

everything done in that time. Lynn, Alison and Rebecca helped us with some

sewing, and some of our peer mentors made their outfits at home so that they

could help us as much as possible in our sessions.

We tried different things - and some of us changed our minds a lot - but in the

end Paula’s outfit was a dress, hat and feather boa; Blair made a spotty waistcoat

and matching bowtie; Matthew wore a t-shirt and hat; Kacey had a beautiful

dress and accessories; Liam created a t-shirt and belt; Ryan made a cool music

themed hoody; Niamh R made her own version of the football shirt for her

favourite team; and Jade styled a scarf and bejewelled t-shirt. Our peer mentors

and volunteers also made their own t-shirts, dresses, hats and bags.

Peer mentor Abbi used

feathers to make her

design stand out.

Learning the dance

On the 5th and 19th February, Emma from Hawick Amateur Opera Society (HAOS)

came in to work with us. At HAOS, Emma’s job is to choreograph the dances for

the Christmas pantomime and other performances. She did some drama activities

with us to start off with, such as doing different silly walks and making animal

noises. Niamh R felt self-conscious but Lorna and Kira gave her lots of

encouragement.

Emma was lovely and we soon all felt more relaxed. We practised doing some

different poses and then had a go at walking down the catwalk. It was a bit

embarrassing – even Lynn and Alison got the giggles! We started off walking the

catwalk in pairs, but some people decided to walk on their own as they got more

confident.

Emma then taught us the dance moves she had

created for the song “I feel better when I’m

dancing”. Ryan and Jade found some of the

moves a bit tricky, but Josh and Liam were really

good at dancing so they helped

the rest of us out.

Josh shows Jade how to

be super confident on a

catwalk.

Rehearsals

We had the two sessions with Emma in February to practise walking down the

catwalk and performing the dance, and then on the 16th April we had a dress

rehearsal at Burnfoot Community Hub. It was a very warm evening and some of

us were feeling tired and grumpy in the heat. Liam felt upset and nervous, Niamh

was rude to some of the volunteers, and Blair used some bad language. Everyone

apologised to each other afterwards and the lovely staff at the Burnfoot café

brought us cold water to drink and showed us how to open the windows wide.

Once we were a bit cooler, we felt better and all started to enjoy practising on the

real catwalk. Emma was there to remind us when to stop and pose and Lynn and

Alison helped with some quick last minute adjustments to our outfits. We

rehearsed the dance but had forgotten some of the dance moves… Thankfully

Niamh S, Sarah and Josh were feeling creative and helped us to come up with a

different move that was easier to remember.

The fashion show

Val and Rebecca arrived at Burnfoot Community Hub early on the 30th April to

transform the room into a catwalk and front row seats:

Burnfoot Community Hub café also made us some amazing cupcakes and

provided tea, coffee and juice for the evening. Emma also came early to check

that the music and our photo slideshow were working properly. At about 6pm we

all arrived and our parents, families, friends and carers starting arriving after that.

We all felt a little nervous beforehand, and Liam felt so nervous that he decided

not to do the catwalk. Niamh R decided to give it a go even though she felt shy

and she did brilliantly. Matthew was amazing – he walked the catwalk twice! Blair

and Paula both asked a peer mentor to walk down with them to help them feel

more confident, while Jade, Ryan and Kacey strutted their stuff all on their own.

Blair grinning after his

brilliant strut down the

catwalk with Sarah.

The photographer Hannah made sure to take loads of photos of us as we walking

and posing. Everyone who came to watch really seemed to enjoy seeing our

outfits and how confident we were on the catwalk. There was lots of clapping and

cheering.

Once we had all walked the catwalk, it was time to perform our dance. Even though

he didn’t want to walk the catwalk, Liam came to dance with us and loved it.

What did everyone think?

Craig from the YPS group was our in-house reporter for the night. He went around

interviewing parents, carers, staff, volunteers and ourselves to see how we had all

enjoyed the evening. There was also a table where people could write about the

evening.

Here are some of the things people said:

“Great outfits”

Carer “How very creative!”

Carer

“I like how everybody helps out and enjoys

themselves”

Josh

“I love my hat”

Carmel

“I thoroughly enjoyed

the dance at the end”

Carer

“Lovely outfits, I enjoyed the whole show

and it was great to work with everybody”

Sarah “Very impressed with the

clothes, well done to all!”

Carer

“Fabulous fashions and

stylish presentation”

Carer

“I love dancing”

Blair

“I loved working with you all. Every one of

you are stars! I hope we can work with and

see each other again”

Emma

“I am immensely proud of each and every

one of you. Fantastic teamwork, you made

me proud”

Val

“What a brilliant evening! I’m so

proud of the hard work everyone

has put into this project. Well

done to all of you”

Rebecca

“Amazing music and

dancing”

Carer

“The best bit was how good the

boys and girls walked the

catwalk”

Carer

“I loved all of the

show. Great work!”

Carer

“Watching you on the catwalk just now,

you can see how hard you all worked on

this project. You did really well, well done”

Craig

Conclusion

The service users and peer mentors all seemed to thoroughly enjoy this project.

Even Ryan, who said at the start that a fashion show didn’t sound like his thing at

all, got really stuck in on the final night and was excellent on the catwalk and in

the dance. Due to peer mentors missing sessions for exam study, cancelled

sessions due to heavy snow, and using a variety of venues over this project, some

of the service users – most notably Niamh R, Liam and Blair – were unsettled over

the term and found some sessions difficult. On the whole though, everyone

seemed to gain something from the project.

In relation to Interest Link aims, this project helped service users to:

- Make more friends

A lot of the group have been together for a while now, but Liam is a fairly

new member and it has been nice to see him start to build friendships with

others in the group. He has taken a shine to Ryan, and Ryan has been great

with him, encouraging the younger service user to try new things and get

involved.

- Feel happier

You can’t deny Kacey’s giant grin in her catwalk photo! There has been a lot

of laughter this term – sometimes at me for not being able to dance well,

and sometimes just because we’re all having fun – which has been lovely to

see and hear. You could see on the service users’ faces how happy it made

them to show off their hard work to parents, friends and families on the

final night.

- Feel more confident

Niamh R definitely gained some confidence over the course of the project.

From refusing to participate in Emma’s drama warm ups to dancing with

the group at the end, there has been a noticeable increase in Niamh’s

confidence. Sadly, Liam’s confidence seemed to lower as the project went

on. He started the first session telling me excitedly how he would pose on

the catwalk, but complained of tummy pains more and more often the

closer we got to the fashion show, and ultimately decided not to walk the

catwalk at all. Liam has not been part of the group for very long and we will

continue to work with him on building confidence in the future.

- Have better self-esteem

Despite her increased confidence, Niamh R still used a lot of negative talk

about herself over the term, showing that her self-esteem is something we

need to continue to work on. I think the same could probably be said for

others in the group, and it could be a good plan to work on a project linked

specifically to self-esteem in order to help the service users work towards

this aim.

- Have better social skills

As outlined in the introduction, this project naturally lent itself to meeting

new people and encountering new social situations. The service users took

this in their stride. Paula engaged with Emma immediately and despite her

lack of verbal communication, was able to let Emma know how she felt and

what she wanted in sessions. Blair and Niamh both came with me on

different occasions to ask staff at Burnfoot Community Hub Café for drinks

for the group, and both were polite and mature in their interactions with

the staff.

Some aims have been met through the project, and others need more directed

work in order to be met, but on the whole the project has been a success. The

service users have all enjoyed themselves throughout the project, and the peer

mentors have done an excellent job of encouraging and supporting the service

users when they needed it.

Moving forward, I think that there is a definite need for some more specific work

on self-esteem, and that I should continue to build on the working relationship I

have started with Liam this term in order to bring him out of his shell. With some

of the older group members due to move on to YPS or one-to-one links, it may be

that Liam starts to feel more at home with a group closer to his age. After a visit

with his parents earlier in the term, I found out that he loves the group and often

complains that he only gets to come once every two weeks, which is heartening

to hear, as there were some points during this project where Liam seemed

anxious and upset about being in the group. Val and I will continue to work closely

with him and his family.

It is wonderful to have such close relationships with the parents and families of

our service users, and the turn out for the fashion show was amazing. I hope

everyone who attended the night enjoyed themselves as much as I did. I am so

proud of all of the young people’s hard work and can’t wait to see what else we

can achieve as a group in the future.

Rebecca Duffell, Assistant Branch Coordinator, May 2018