Friday 26th April - Back in the office

After a number of weeks of being out and about, attending and supporting various Cartwheel activities across the community, I came back to the office to find a lovely full tray of jobs to do! I finished typing up the poems from different Tell Us Another One sessions, which was even more enjoyable now that I had experienced some of these sessions myself, and was introduced to the TUAO filing system. I then finished typing up participant responses from Art Cart, Arts and Enterprise and the Skills Fortnight (including my own!). It's interesting to see what participants value in these sessions. I'm feeling better for having gotten on top of these jobs, and looking forward to more next time!

Tuesday 16th and Friday 19th April - Tell Us Another One

This week I attended two Tell Us Another One sessions. The first was in Rochdale, and was the last of a series of sessions working with people for whom English was an additional language. It was lovely to hear them perform their own work, both poems and songs. Clearly over the course they have gained great skill and confidence in writing and speaking in English, especially to be able to do so creatively!

The second was at Dumer's Lane, again coming towards the end of a series of workshops for this new TUAO group. Here I was offered paper and pen by a participant and invited to take part. This session was lead by a participant, who did a great job in encouraging us to write dialogue. I enjoyed hearing the poems, scripts and stories participants had written both during and outside of sessions, and was grateful of the chance encouragement to get writing again myself.

Friday 5th April, Monday 8th April and Friday 12th April - Skills Fortnight

I attended Cartwheel Arts' Skills Fortnight, with workshops in First Aid, Health and Safety, Equality and Diversity and Risk Assessment. This was a great opportunity to learn and train myself, and also to see how Cartwheel offers training and career development to people across the community who aren't necessarily working in the Arts. Having said that, I was inspired by how Kerry turned Risk Assessment (a notoriously dry topic) into a creative and fun workshop; I never would have guessed Risk Assessment could have a group laughing so much! As well as supporting Kerry in this session, it was great to experience these workshops as a participant, gaining valuable insight into the workshop topics and another branch of Cartwheel's work.

Tuesday 2nd April - Out and about

Today I went with Rick out and about around the various estates Cartwheel Arts work with. We met the Enterprise participants at Langley, who are in the process of organising a family fun day. A spot of lunch, then we went to Darnhill Library for the Easter Fundraiser. It was nice to meet the ladies and see the kids enjoying the Easter crafts. We had a walk around the park area, and then continued to Back o'th Moss. It was upsetting to see the hard work of Cartwheel and the community being mistreated, but nonetheless inspiring to meet the groups of people working hard to bring their communities together.

Wednesday 27th March - In the Office

It was really nice to come in to a full try of odd jobs to do: shredding, photocopying, typing up poems (always a nice part of an afternoon with Cartwheel!). I was then introduced to the company's database, and after a demo from Lucy, I in-putted participant data into it. Although I've done this using a spreadsheet before, this is the first time I'd used an actual database, so was a useful experience.

I then set about creating a spreadsheet to record Art Cart participant feedback. The tricky bit was figuring out a clear format that would list the information by date, but I think I've cracked it! Just need to input the answers and see how the graphs turn out.

Wednesday 13^th March 2013 – Exploring the town and back in the office

Over a quickly-succeeding second cup of tea, Kerry explained the basics of how I go about registering as self employed, what this entails, and completing an invoice – this seems a lot less scary now! We then went for a walk into sunny Heywood, stopping to visit the Phoenix Centre, the Library, Recovery Republic and an Art & Soul session. It was nice to get to visit these places and groups that I've heard about and know I will be working with over the course of the traineeship, and it was useful to chat with Kerry on the way about some of the challenges arts companies face regarding funding.

Back in the office, I organised Community First questionnaires into a collective response from different wards, regarding their thoughts on the wards and where they think funding should be prioritised. It was good to gain an insight into the area through the eyes of residents, and I visited the Community First websites to learn more.

Key learning points of today were the challenges in securing funding for community arts projects; the Hopwood Recreation Ground needs draining; and I need to up my tea-drinking game!

Wednesday 6^th March 2013 – First Day

The day began with a cup of tea, an introduction to Cartwheel Arts and its various staff and projects, and a tour of the building. Lucy and I synchronised diaries to schedule when I’d be in the office and when I could be out assisting projects, consulting the rest of the team accordingly. I’m particularly excited to get out and about and work practically on projects in the community. Another cup of tea in hand, Lucy then set me some simple admin tasks to warm me into things, including distributing leaflets for the BUPA Manchester 10k run around the area. I took time out to sit in on the team meeting, where staff very kindly took time to describe the various projects being discussed and suggested how I could be of further assistance.

All in all a very pleasant first day; I’ve been made to feel very welcome, and look forward to what the coming weeks with Cartwheel Arts have in store