TiPP staff have considerable experience in developing arts based activities for adults in community settings. This has seen us working with a range of statutory and voluntary agencies that work with offenders and ex-offenders. These projects have been diverse and wide ranging and have seen us employing a wide range of art forms to engage with people in difficult and challenging circumstances.

Our Mark TiPP were approached by the Community Partnerships Co-ordinator of the prestigious Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester to develop a show with men and women who were clients of Manchester Drug Services (MDS). TiPP worked with the group over a three month period as they developed a short drama piece that was premiered in the Exchange's studio space. Uniquely this project was a collaboration with women writers in HMP Styal. Material developed by the MDS group was used as a creative stimulus by the prison's Writer in Residence. The inmates' written material was then taken back to the MDS group; over a period of several weeks this creative exchange process resulted in Our Mark - the story of one man's experience of his sister's wedding.

Our Mark Photo by Joel Fildes

The Blue Room
This project works with young men who sell sex in Manchester. The project uses drama, music and physical theatre to engage young men from the streets and internet and introduce them to a range of art forms and develop their skills and creativity. In 2006 this project attracted significant funding from Charity Projects (Comic Relief). The project was so successful that it established itself as an independent organisation in late 2009.

Image from The Grey Area project. Photo by: David Oates.

DTTO and The Grey Area In 2003 TiPP began working with DTTO (Drug Treatment and Testing Order) clients at Moss Side Probation Centre in Manchester. This was a creative drama project that resulted in the presentation of performance pieces at a Manchester Drug Service Conference in November 2003 and at the Prison Service Head of Learning and Skills Unit Conference in York in December 2003. The Moss Side group went on to develop a second, more ambitious performance piece 'The Grey Area' that incorporated music, song and physical theatre. This piece was premiered at the John Thaw Studio Theatre in the University of Manchester in July 2004. "For drug and alcohol users, the grey area is the most difficult part of recovery as there are so many possible roads to take, but they all seem fake. This new play, devised by the cast is about The Grey Area; what it feels like to be in it, and what it takes to get out." Programme notes, The Grey Area The success of the Moss Side project resulted in invitations for us to work with DTTO teams in Ashton, Salford and Bolton.

Persistent Offenders Programme
This project was based in Salford Probation Centre and targeted men designated as persistent offenders. TiPP delivered weekly workshops that aimed to develop self-awareness, life skills and victim empathy.