Effervescenti.am.not.a.robot
Effervescent is a transdisciplinary socially engaged arts organisation operating across the arts and culture, heritage, education, marketing and advertising, welfare and health sectors.
Effervescent aims to help socially minded organisations of all kinds to collaborate with children and young people to co-produce creative campaigns that drive social change. They are a collective of artists, creatives, qualified youth workers and marketeers, all committed to igniting children’s creativity for good.
One of their 2017 flagship projects, i.am.not.a.robot was a multimedia immersive creative campaign designed by five young people in foster care, with the aim to drive new and more suitable people to be foster parents in Plymouth.
Effervescent
Target Beneficiaries
The i.am.not.robot project targeted potential foster carers and young people in foster care, with the ambition of increasing potential foster carers.
Effervescents’ projects transform the lives of the children and young people they collaborate with. Their campaigns create large scale social impact, win awards and ‘make the world a little bit better.’
For the last 20 years Effervescent has been developing their ‘meffod’; a proprietary methodology for helping children and young people to say the things they need to say, to the people who need to hear it. It’s a unique approach that has redefined what co-production can achieve.
Delivery
Effervescent helps organisations (ie charities, public sector organisations or ethical business etc) to begin collaborating with young people in a meaningful way. Effervescent’s work goes far beyond consultation; it draws on the collective wisdom of the group to co-create a campaign from start to finish, giving young people a voice on the issues that matter to them.
In 2017 Effervescent worked in partnership with Plymouth City Council on i.am.not.a.robot. A group of young people in foster care spent 20 days making a campaign that created 29 potential new care placements for local children.
In collaboration with a group of young curators, the young people developed an interactive installation that saw visitors not just process the story they were being told, but feel it. Using 50 robots that would sing and dance if you gave them the love and care they needed, visitors could practice their foster caring skills – reading them stories, virtually hugging them and showing their support through social media. Once the robots were emotionally ready, applicants could come forward to foster them – taking them out into the world and sharing their experiences.
Impact
i.am.not.a.robot won Best Local Authority Arts Initiative at the Hearts for the Arts Awards, an annual celebration of the local authorities who invest in the joy, excitement and life-enriching quality of the arts. Each year they demonstrate the power of the arts to change lives.
On each of the projects Effervescent have delivered since 2012, over 85% of the young people who took part have reported that they are happier, healthier and feel more socially-connected as a direct result of the work.
Testimonials
“I’m very excited about what we can achieve going forward because I think it’s the start of something that is really important, not only for the fostering service and the wider public but also for the children in care that are looked after.”
“An innovative and inspirational project supported by a range of excellent partners and funders. This is the sort of initiative that could be rolled out nationally. Excellent!”
Acknowledgements
Plymouth City Council (main partner), ACE, Big Lottery, Big Potential, Exeter University, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation