Annual report and accounts for Good Vibrations for 2010/11

As well as providing the information required by the Charity Commission, we have taken the opportunity to describe the rationale for our work and the outcomes we deliver, provide an account of our achievements over the year, and outline our future plans.

Below is a summary of our achievements, along with two powerful case studies.

2010/11 was another successful and eventful year for Good Vibrations:

• we ran 23 Good Vibrations courses hosted by 14 institutions (11 prisons, 1 special hospital, 1 immigration detention centre and 1 other community setting), benefiting 426 people in all.
• we continued to run our ongoing music technology sessions at a secure unit (2 days/week, 23 patients).
• we worked with young people in the community, running gamelan courses for four groups of ‘NEET’ (not in education, employment and training) young people undertaking a 13 week employability skills course.
• we successfully piloted Good Vibrations as part of an Offending Behaviour Programme: two projects at a high security prison were programmed as the “foundation” stage of accredited programmes, the first for a group of men starting a six-month CALM (anger management) course, the second for men starting a six-month FOCUS (integrated drugs treatment) programme.
• we commissioned a fourth independent study on the impact of Good Vibrations' work, Continuing Positive Change, published in June 2010. The researchers concluded that Good Vibrations maintain the positive benefits in the longer-term (12-18 months on), including as people move through the prison system and out into the community. These benefits include:
• Greater levels of engagement and an increased openness to wider learning;
• improved listening and communication skills;
• improved social skills and increased social interaction;
• improved relationships with prison staff, peers and family members; and
• decreased levels of self-reported anger and a greater sense of calmness

2010/11 was another challenging year for many organisations delivering arts projects in prisons, including Good Vibrations, as public sector cuts started to bite. Host institutions now have even less funding available for projects and interventions such as Good Vibrations, which, despite the growing body of evidence of their effectiveness, are nevertheless still often regarded as non-essential.  That we have been able to continue with our groundbreaking and transformative work is a testament to our professionalism, years of experience and good reputation.

We have deliberately gone for a no-frills, un-glossy report, to save money, focusing instead on providing you with useful and interesting content. To download the report and accounts, please click here.

And please read on for two powerful case studies...