We’re very excited to announce two major nationwide projects working alongside foster agency, Regional Foster Families (RFF).

Starting in March, and running over two years, we will be delivering our workshop Listening with Your Eyes in each of seven regions across the UK. The workshop practically explores the many ways in which we make connections, with the emphasis on the non-verbal. It looks at the impact of body language, mood, eye-contact, touch, and gesture, and shows how tone of voice can change the meaning of the words we say. Listening with your Eyes offers an opportunity for participants to see the powerful effect of non-verbal techniques, and their benefit in helping us make real and honest connections, particularly with more vulnerable members of our society. RFF will be inviting all its foster carers, staff and foster panel members to attend the workshops.

Running alongside this training, we will delivering a second nationwide project, providing mask making residencies for foster children and birth children aged over eight: the residencies aim to provide a creative means of engaging children’s views, building a participative dialogue about their experiences, and finding out more about how RFF can improve its services and supports.

Other work with Looked After Children includes a commission for a new interactive, playful Walkabout for Virtual Schools Worcestershire, along with further mask making residencies for CLA children in Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Shropshire, supported by Virtual Schools Worcestershire, Virtual Schools Staffordshire and Shropshire, and Artslink.

For more information about how our Listening with your Eyes workshop can benefit those working with young people, please contact our Learning Department learning[at]vamostheatre.co.uk