Removed OUTREACH

To accompany our 2019 tour of Removed by Fionnuala Kennedy, we partnered, initially with Clanmil Housing and ,subsequently supported by Arts and Business NI  Barnardo’s NI, Home For Good, TUSLA, EPIC and VOYPIC to create a collaboration that would be impactful, affecting, that would effect change while being accessible and something that everyone would want to see. We wanted to evolve our practice. Clanmil wanted to engage in a more meaningful way with their clients and within their sector. Prime Cut wanted to deliver a touring project that would definitively prove the impact that art can have on society without any reduction of production values or artistic quality. VOYPIC, EPIC Barnardos and HFG all wanted to raise awareness of the issues currently around fostering and the Care System.

It resulted in the delivery of an Ireland wide series of workshops, talks, discussions and scaled down performances in venues as widely diverse as church halls to universities.

We have worked with prospective foster parents, trainee youth and social workers, professional social workers and the play has been performed as the closing event of the TUSLA National Conference 2019, the EPIC Care Day Launch (Limerick) 2020 and was scheduled to be performed to over 500 staff from across the 5 Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland over 6 performances in Spring 2020 (this has been postponed until after the pandemic). To date over 400 people have participated in workshops with close to 5 times that having seen the show and participated in post-show discussions. It has resulted in an acknowledgement that the arts can be an invaluable tool in both training and raising awareness from both the  health and social care sectors as well as further and higher education  institutions across the island of Ireland.

FEEDBACK

Behind the numbers and statistics of the care system are countless individual stories of children and young people. Removed brings these stories to life. Home for Good is partnering with Prime Cut Production to enable Removed to reach a wider audience because we are passionate about these stories being told, to enable more people to better understand and respond to the needs of vulnerable children and young people. Malini Colville, Home for Good Lead in Northern Ireland

We were thrilled to be involved with Prime Cut in 2019 Removed Outreach Programme running across NI.Many of the events were attended by Key Stakeholders and Policy Makers for Looked After Children and has helped shine a light on challenges facing the care system. This will galvanise us all to do better. We would welcome any future partnership with Prime Cut on this or any related theme. Helen Browne. Assistant Head of Business Barnardos NI

Brilliant, informative Such a moving performance. I just wanted to say a big thank you for the Play and delivery of the workshops yesterday. I know I found the Play powerful and the feedback I have received has been great. So a big thank you to you and all your team for creating this play that has sparked so many conversation on Care and delivered such moving and powerful insights into the Care System. Thank you so much and I hope the play gets another outing again soon. Joe Walsh: EPIC

 Prime Cut Productions facilitated Tusla with a performance of Removed as part of our Annual National Prevention, Partnership and Family Support Conference. The audience, made up of Tusla and partner agency personnel, found the performance extremely impactful and thought provoking! The performance created a space for reflection that is often difficult to achieve amongst the people who are very busy working to support children, families and communities. Una, Ashley and Conor were excellent to deal with and facilitated the organisation of the performance to suit our needs in a very accommodating manner. I would recommend that all those involved in child and family services, practitioners, managers, policy makers, service users and elected representatives but also all of society get the opportunity to see Removed in a bid to better understand Care from the perspective of young people with lived experience: Fergal Landy. TUSLA Regional Implementation Manager for Prevention, Partnership and Family Support, West.