After the success of a similar event in 2008, darts has once again joined forces with NHS Doncaster to host a Stakeholder Day at The Point.
Professionals including drugs and youth workers, police and children's services staff joined young people for a series of visual arts, music and drama workshops designed to prompt discussion and feedback on issues relating to substance misuse.
Opinions of all involved will feed in to future plans for service provision to make sure young people can access the help they need.
Prior to the Stakeholders Day itself, darts held a series of smaller arts-based consultation sessions with children and young people at several locations including schools, pupil referral units & child care units.
A short film has been made reflecting the consultation. A questionnaire was also sent out to some secondary schools to obtain further feedback from young people. With around 500 responses in total, this feedback was used to form the basis of the creative workshops.
Lee Golze, Children and Young People Commissioning Manager at NHS Doncaster said:
"For the past two years we have worked in close partnership with darts to develop and run a very successful consultation package which attracts and consults with hundreds of children, young people and professionals. The artists create wonderful workshops around specific questions and through their creativity and energy, effective consultation takes place. The management of the other programs commissioned is excellent and is making a real difference to a number of children and young people in the Borough."
He continued: "This key consultation work is a way of showing us which services are working well, what could be improved and what are the gaps. All findings from the consultation process feed directly into the Children and Young People Substance Misuse Treatment Plan which details what our actions and objectives are for the forthcoming year.
"By using arts, the aim is to create innovative and stimulating workshops designed to remove any barriers to communication."