What's Involved?
Heartbeat Academy runs an on going arts and personal development programme for young offenders and youths most at risk of offending. This mentoring/vocational programme serves the needs of young people between the ages of 13 and 20 years. This includes youths excluded from mainstream education. We also aim to reach youths in custody. At Heartbeat, young offenders have access to exciting and practical learning facilities. We use the arts as a tool to keep them engaged in constructive activities as well as to inspire them to set and pursue positive life goals. The effectiveness of using the arts in this way should not be underestimated. For many disadvantaged urban youths the arts are one of the few fields of learning that they really get excited about ­ for some it is a means of escape from the mundane. Many of them would very much like to have careers in this field. Sadly, the majority of such youths have very little access to the arts. Many live in deprived areas or are in households that have low incomes. It often means that they only experience the arts at a distance, unlike their peers from well-to-do backgrounds. With our mentoring programme we aim to redress this imbalance. In a sense we want to bring the arts to them. Details of topics covered in the programme are on the back page of this booklet.