Evaluation & Research
Good Vibrations is committed to ensuring that our work is robustly evaluated. We look for concrete and specific evidence of the effectiveness of our work. We regularly commission detailed independent assessments of our work.
Promoting Positive Change
This report, commissioned from Birmingham City University's Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research, looked at the longer-term benefits of taking part in Good Vibrations.
...participating in a Good Vibrations project has a sustained and positive emotional and psychological impact on participants...
The researchers found that participants in Good Vibrations courses maintained the positive benefits 6-9 months on, and in particular that participants experienced:
- 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
- Decreased levels of self-reported anger and a greater sense of calmness
In short, the study concludes that participating in a Good Vibrations project has a sustained and positive, emotional and psychological impact on participants, leading to positive behavioural change. This suggests that expanded support for innovative projects like Good Vibrations would have significant benefits for prisons and the prison system as a whole.
The Promoting Positive Change study was written up in the Prison Service Journal in March 2009. For a copy of the full report please contact us.
All Together Now
This study, commissioned from Professor Alison Liebling's team at the Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology, assessed the therapeutic benefits and value of taking part in Good Vibrations. The main conclusions were:
- "[Good Vibrations] presented an opportunity for participants to reflect upon their lives without the potentially intimidating context of formal 'therapy'.
- "At other times, the Gamelan music produced by the participants carried meaning for them that they could not verbalise, or perhaps did not consciously recognise. One participant reported to the group how she felt the music spoke to her soul and calmed her in a way she could not describe. Other participants expressed similar sentiments - that they had experienced a sensation of peace and connection that they could not do justice to through verbal description.
- "Coming from lives often characterised by abuse, oppression, or lack of opportunity, an experience where each individual's opinions were valued had great therapeutic potential.
"Increasingly, towards the end of the week, group members spontaneously and independently controlled their own behaviour, without needing prompts from the more focussed group members.
- "The [project] provided motivation for the development of a respectful and focussed group environment, but also for the development of skills with which to achieve this.
- "The manner in which the course was delivered may have helped to prepare vulnerable participants for more formal therapy by developing their sense of empowerment, their communication and interpersonal skills, and their willingness to make themselves vulnerable in front of a group of peers.
In many ways, the workshop increased women's interest in many things (including the music per se), and their willingness to participate in other courses and activities."
The study was written up in the Prison Service Journal in March 2007. For a copy of this report please contact us.
