Youth Theatre Arts Scotland is delighted to announce the successful applicants to their Continued Professional Development Fund.
The brand-new fund allows Scottish-based youth theatre leaders, staff and volunteers to access training which will benefit their practice and the young people they work with. In the long-term YTAS hopes that the new CPD Fund will support the development of practitioners, as well as encouraging ambition and progression within Scotland’s youth theatre sector overall.
YTAS were thrilled with the number of applications received for this first round of funding, and after a competitive assessment process, are delighted to be able to distribute the funding pot across much of Scotland, from Inverness to the Borders.
Kate Stevens and the Beacon Arts Centre will receive £482.60 to upskill four members of their team. Two youth theatre leaders, one assistant, and one young person from the Beacon will access a variety of online and in-person training including First Aid, Child Protection, and Accessibility & Autism Awareness.
Amy Watt is being awarded £300 towards travel and accommodation so that she can shadow Company Three, an award-winning company in London making theatre about what it means to be a teenager today. Amy wants to improve her devising skills with young people and share this learning with her colleagues and the participants she works with at Eden Court in Inverness.
Jenny Anderson secured £300 towards her course fees for the Introduction to Dramatherapy course at Queen Margaret University. Dramatherapy is a recognised profession concerned with how creative techniques can contribute to beneficial psychological change. It is used in psychiatry, psychotherapy, physical and learning disability services, education, palliative care and many other settings. Jenny hopes the course will inform her professional development as a Child Protection Officer with Borders Youth Theatre.
Jeanne Hamilton will also be putting her £300 award towards course fees, this time at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She would like to hone her workshop, performance and rehearsal skills in order to complement her youth theatre work and heighten her confidence to lead workshops.
Finally, Roxanna Haines is being awarded £327 to attend three training courses about relationships and the brain, mindfulness, and understanding trauma, after which she hopes to incorporate these therapeutic practices into her work with young people.
The next round of the CPD Fund opens in February 2020. Money awarded can be used towards paying for opportunities such as a training course or workshop, an entry fee to a festival or performance, accommodation and travel costs, resources, or more, as long as it will contribute to professional development.
