Long term support
Keep in Touch Programme
We are committed to supporting people who have been on our courses as long as they need us. We listen to what they want and try to give them the best opportunities we can. We also support them to make contact with other organisations that can help them.
At the end of each course we ask all participants if they want to the join Keep in Touch programme, and then we connect with them regularly through e-newsletters, phone calls and emails:
- Offering them access to our Bursary Scheme to develop their musical skills
- Inviting them to become a volunteer advisor for Good Vibrations
- Reminding them of our Opportunities Database, which recommends courses, work-related activities and support
- Inviting them to take part in further Good Vibrations courses
- Asking them to reflect back on their Good Vibrations experience, and their journey post-course
Our Opportunities Database
To see recommendations of arts courses, work-related activities, and organisations offering specialised support, have a look at our Opportunities Database.
Re-connecting
We love reconnecting with past-participants and hearing how they are doing. So, if you were on one of our courses, why not get in touch? We’re really happy to give you further one-to-one support, if we can help.
- Perhaps you’ve got ideas for how we could do things better?
- Maybe you’d like to find out more about our bursary scheme or other ways we can support you?
- Perhaps you’d like to get involved with Good Vibrations in some way?
Good Vibrations inspired me to want to learn more about music, and when I returned home, I applied to do music at the University of Sheffield. I was accepted on the course and have now graduated with a 2:1 degree… I now hope to find a career as part of a team which uses music to help people in prisons and in the community.
A participant who become one of our facilitators
Good Vibrations gave me focus and a chance to escape the suffocating surroundings of the justice system. They supported me throughout and whenever they could, offered me chances to use skills I had but felt I could no longer use. I was useful again. When things went bad they supported me and helped me get back to my feet. They didn’t turn their back on me or judge me. It was that kind of support that help me to truly turn my life around.
Stories
We were delighted to see a past participant, Errol (left, pictured with GV team members Malcolm and Katy), out and about performing his spoken word pieces at an Open Mic Night in London in 2017 – a year after he created this piece with us.
In this clip, one of our past-participant trainees, Mark is improvising with other gamelan players and dancers at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Daniel came to one of our gamelan courses in Bognor Regis in 2016. A few months later he got in touch to share a remix he’d done of a piece he’d made on the course.