Our passion is to work with people in Doncaster who have least access to the arts. The national youth crime prevention  programme called Positive Futures helps young people from deprived communities steer clear of crime, drug and alcohol misuse and move forward in their lives… Put us together and you get Positive Futures – Arts working with young people across Doncaster.

Most of Positive Futures work use purely sports activities to engage with young people… but at darts we like to experiment and break new ground… so we use an arts only approach.

Artists use activities like street art and DJing to help young people explore the issues they may face in life like drinking and/or substance misuse – by looking at them through art, young people feel they can talk about things in a non-threatening environment without being judged.

A chat about Amy Winehouse, the issues she faced and how she used song lyrics to express herself can help get young people talking, thinking and working things out. These conversations are then used to inspire creativity.

In Carcroft, visual artist Caroline Gaytor has been busy with eight local young people creating large mosaics to decorate a new wall in the youth centre. The theme is respect.

Over in Intake, artists have recently been working closely with South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service in the skate park. The theme of the work was ‘Drive for Life’.  

Young people aged 17- 24 are one of the most at risks groups of experiencing road traffic accidents. The service use practical demonstrations and videos to show the devastating effects of driving whilst distracted or under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Our artist’s work reinforces the message and gives young people chance to talk about what they have seen and heard in a safe environment before using it as a stimulus to create their own artwork.