Future Foundations.
In Q1 2023 we conducted interviews with our youth arts partners. Below is a summary of Future Foundations’s programs as told through the interview with David Rothstadt.
Who Are Future Foundations?
Future Foundations is a recognised charity founded in early 2011 and committed to empowering the lives of disadvantaged young people through a community program, combining creative and personal mentoring.
Future Foundations is unique in that it partners the arts and the business community applying a dual mentor approach.
Participants finish the program with new and enhanced creative and life skills and the confidence to achieve their goals.
Programs and How They Work?
The program group lasts for eight months and has no more than 15 participants from a single school or group of schools, aged between 10 and 14.
This is to ensure that they receive one on one attention and mentoring. Each project has a community focus and ends with a public art exhibition where the participants present their art piece.
The participants obtain new skills in creative areas of their choice as well as getting training in resilience, self-esteem, communication skills, setting goals and achieving results.
Workshops
These workshops centre on the following skills and artistic learning:
a brief overview of public art theory, history and practice
site assessment, concept development, fabrication, budgeting, installation and project management
visual art and new media, understanding how techniques can be used to create public art
using the medium of photography for research, creative output and documentation
understanding how movement and posture affect the emotions and the ability to communicate and interact with others in a positive way; and
building confidence for communicating ideas and presenting publicly.
Workshops include working in the studio, and at the site of the public artworks in Central Dandenong & Melbourne.
Their creative vision is to stimulate creative activity in young people and to:
provide a safe and nurturing environment that supports the art making process
increase the practical and technical skills of the participants
encourage independent thinking and collaboration, through the development and presentation of a shared creative enterprise
promote social inclusiveness and increase arts access within public spaces for the participants and the audience; and
open pathways for communication through cultural activity – to reduce isolation and foster engagement with disadvantaged youth.
David Rothstadt (Non-Executive Director)
On the mentors:
“So to me, the people who would benefit from microcredentials would be mainly the young adults who are delivering the program to the primary school age students, because in delivering the program they're building skills that they already have, or enhancing those or engaging in some new skill development that they haven't actually had the opportunity to do before. And that's particularly in relation to their actual delivery of the service, which is a teaching / mentoring role, I would say. And with teaching and mentoring there are various component parts to it.”
“I guess the modality that we use for the children is that inquiry approach to whatever arts project they take, so it's really important that the mentors are not being didactic about how they go through it. They're actually there to support the learning, and let the learner discover their pathway. And they're there to support them with their problem solving, etc, etc, which is another thing that's mentioned along the way.”
“There's planning for the mentors, because they're coming in, after their first couple of meetings with the students, they're tapping into what the students have said are their particular artistic interests. And then they've got to do some thinking about that. And perhaps some research about the particular art process. And it might be cartooning, it might be fine line drawing, so there might be some research and so there's some planning there. So this is not a job, you can’t just walk in, and just say, ‘let's just run with it’, you've got to have some sort of idea of something that's going to be a good stimulus for the kids and some knowledge that you bring to it. So there's that level of planning, which is like planning for any teaching session.” - David
On the coordinators:
“For the coordinator, of course, that level of coordination is different again, because they've got to be organising, they've got that whole logistics piece. So they're making sure that all of the arts materials are available on a given week. Talking to the students, talking to the mentors, seeing if there's anything new that we need, setting the space up, making sure that there's food available. And of course, the coordinator has a bit of an HR function. They've got to manage their workforce. And that can be anything from someone's going to be absent, late, is unwell, or they're not happy with someone that they're working with, or that they're not pulling their weight, or they're not doing something appropriately. All of the above, managing people, they're normally the most challenging parts of any job that you have.”
“For the young person who's doing this role as the coordinator, it's probably the first time they've had to manage people. And there's probably some complexities that they've never even thought about. So I think that's definitely a skill that the coordinator would be building. Resourcing the program and managing protocols. And I guess, for all of the people in the program, it might be one of the first times that they've worked in an organisation, but they have to understand that there are protocols around this, and some of those protocols are around the way you interact with your colleagues, many of them around the child safety piece, which is so complex now. And, rightly so. And so, it's a whole lot of stuff that people don't think about, but it is really, really crucial that people are starting to be aware of that and the needs of the students.
I talked about walking alongside the students and how that's a skill in itself. Setting timelines is a really important aspect of the program. Starting to look forward in terms of the program runs for 14 weeks. ‘Okay, I'm working with a couple of children, this one's got this particular project, how are we going to see that this gets towards some sort of finished product’. And I should emphasise that it's not always about the product, it's more this whole project, it's really about the process. But we always do seem to finish up with great, great products. So setting timelines, that time management, I think, is a real skill that they are developing along the way, which they may not have had to develop in the past. Because perhaps, given that many of the people are in a younger cohort, they might have had to manage timelines for themselves, i.e. an essay or a project piece, but they're actually now managing something for themselves and for someone else, and making sure that that other person is on board with it. That makes it a very different task setting for them.
And monitoring the wellbeing of the students and colleagues. Because the whole purpose of the mentoring is that aside from that skill development, you're also getting to just be a person who's available to the children. And sometimes in that situation, the children will let you know stuff that will surprise you. When you're working on an art project sitting beside a couple of kids and something comes up about a sibling or a parent. They might reveal something that quite shocks you and might need some follow up, might need some reporting even. Or it might just need a warm and empathetic ear to hear what the child's saying and, you know, be that reflective person back to the child. So I think that monitoring wellbeing is, again, so many of these things are incidental. But this actually is something that's inescapable in the process”
The 21st century skills and capabilities that young people develop
Literacy (English language skills modelled to the children)
ICT literacy
Cultural and civic literacy
Problem solving (mentors support the children to develop problem solving)
David Rothstadt: “So they've got to be part of problem solving with the kids. And they've got to do that in a way that I think really does build skills. Because if you are in a room as an adult, with other people in some sort of collaboration, if you are the loudest voice, and you're doing all the problem solving, you're actually not, you're actually inhibiting other people's ability to contribute to it. So problem solving is actually quite an art form. Because it can't be just about you in terms of 21st century skills. It has to be a collaborative endeavour.”
Collaboration
Critical thinking
Creativity
David Rothstadt: “creative thinking, creativity is obviously a massive part of the program. Because they've got to do two things: They've got to grasp on to what the children's creativity is and add their personal creativity to it. But they've also got to suppress their inner beast that they don't try and take the child in their direction rather than the child's direction. So it's actually quite a skill because you need to ‘not being the sage on the stage, but being the guide on the side’.”
Communication
Curiosity (sharing the child/student’s vision)
David Rothstadt: “Curiosity, because they've got to share the student's vision in this role, and it's demonstrating a little bit of empathy too, because they've got to engage with what the child's thinking without imposing their view of it, which means being curious about how the child's mind is working. What's bringing the child to want to explore this particular aspect of art?”
Initiative (finding opportunities for the child/student)
David Rothstadt: “Demonstrate initiative, seeing opportunities for the students. And again, in that way, where you're leading them, but not doing the work for them.”
Persistence (encouraging the child/student while not taking over)
David Rothstadt: “Persistence is a massive one. I mean, in any teaching/mentoring role, you've got to be demonstrating that personal resilience, so as the children who are involved in the program are being encouraged every step of the way. And sometimes that means you're being persistent in yourself in not taking over, but just demonstrating that you want to keep the momentum going with the project.”
Adaptability (being ready to change with the child and their project, also being ready to take on other students when other mentors are unavailable )
David Rothstadt: “Adaptability, certainly, you've got to be ready to change, change with the child with whatever their project is. And you've also got to be learning to work with the other mentors because you might have five or six mentors in the room, a dozen students, and you might need to be ready to change, work with another child or group of children. Or take on extra children because someone's absent. So you have to be ready to adapt in a program sense on a day to day basis.”
Social and cultural awareness (The children/students come from culturally diverse backgrounds. Mentors need to be aware of their language, of cultural customs etc.)
David Rothstadt: “social and cultural awareness, they're working with diverse communities, it's pretty apparent that they're going to be building those skills, because for some of them, it might be the first time that they're working in a role where they're leading other people, being children in this case. But also needing to be particularly aware of how their language, how their countenance, how their appearance is going to impact on those children. And being aware of the children's needs in terms of various ethnicities, and religious groups that are involved in the program, and being thoughtful about that. As simple as if there are any young guys in the program, and they are as the leaders, working with young girls, they've got to be very thoughtful about whether or not they shake hands with them, for example. So there are things that won't be obvious to people that they will certainly develop some mindfulness about what needs to be done. Some empathy, but some of them might actually already bring those skills and add value to the program.”
Leadership (the coordinators (who run the centres) need to manage the workforce of mentors, provide feedback, manage “shifts” etc.)
David Rothstadt: “Leadership, particularly for the coordinator of the program, so each program, we've got an overarching executive officer, and that person plays two roles, and they also coordinate one of the sites. Now, there are a number of things that are happening in that person's role. So, they've got to manage… But I think leadership for that person, the people who are in the coordinator role is definitely a key part of it.”