The Toon Experience is a hard-hitting drama production that aims to address the key issues that face young people across Scotland today and is delivered as part of Youth Beatz Festival. Issues featured within the production included:
- Poverty
- Mental Health
- Bullying
- Sexual Health
- Alcohol and Drug Abuse
It is co-designed by a range of local and national partner organisations with young people who plan, develop and deliver the project at Youth Beatz.
To enable young people to deliver The Toon, peer educators are recruited and given intense training in the months leading up to the festival in a range of skills including; acting, prop and set design and peer education training on a range of topics. The young people then use the information they have learnt to enable them to produce a script that highlights all the issues that they believe are relevant to young people, they receive support from the partners to ensure it is accurate factually.
The young people design and develop their set and props before delivering this experience to their peers. The young people attending the experience are presented a range of hard hitting scenes that explore a variety of topics ending with taking part in a workshop where they are encouraged to discuss their learning and where the key messages are reinforced.
The Toon has not only had a huge impact on the peer educators but also on the young people going through the experience.
Through involvement in the Toon, young people take part in a yearlong programme of training and project work which is predominantly attended by young people who are disengaged in education, employment or training, and through this we are reducing the attainment gap.
Young people taking part in and experiencing The Toon report that there is an increase in their positive mental health and in turn, an increase in young people reaching positive destinations through further education, training or employment.
On site at Youth Beatz, The Toon is delivered within a big top tent with the whole production running within this structure.
Once inside the tent, young people are allocated to a tour and their tour guide will then escort them through the different scenes. Each scene is delivered by young people and a different topic is covered within each scene. At the end of the tour the young people go through a debrief zone delivered by professionals from different youth work agencies to allow for discussion on what the young people have experienced.
In the week leading up to the main event days, special tours are delivered to S3 and S4 pupils from across Dumfries and Galloway. This ensures that all young people in S3 and S4 in the region are given the opportunity to take part in The Toon Experience.
The Toon tours are delivered in 3 ways:
- Schools Tours in the week leading up to the main events days – Secondary schools across Dumfries & Galloway are offered the chance for entire year groups (S3 &S4) to take in special ‘preview’ tours
- Sponsors and Friends – Sponsors and partners are invited to tour The Toon, this includes Elected Members, representatives from partner agencies, parents and organisations who kindly sponsor The Toon
- Main Event Days – Attendees on the 2 main event days are given the chance to experience The Toon
Issues covered in the delivery of The Toon include:
Bereavement, Domestic Abuse, Poverty, Knife Crime, Drugs & Alcohol, Mental Health, Smoking & Vaping, Sexual Health, Equality & Diversity, Hate Speech, Water Safety and Young Drivers.
Over the course of the event days, over 3,687 young people went through The Toon.