How To Take Care

TAKING CARE

Care is central to the work we do here at Common/Wealth; it is a thread that runs through all of the work, from large-scale shows to neighbourhood projects, workshops and our activities with young people. We know that for all the people we are working with to be able to engage fully in our creative processes, they need to be supported. 

This takes many forms of pastoral support such as:

• Being a ‘cheerleader’ for people, letting them know how valued they are in the work and in our spaces (e.g. offering person-centred 1-2-1 pastoral sessions for young people taking part in Off Road, supporting them with their Mental Health, getting back into education and re-engaging with statutory services).
• Supporting someone through the anxiety of performing in front of an audience for the first time (e.g. during Fast Fast Slow where local people modelled and performed for the first time, our well-being worker did a session with them about what happens to your body when you feel nervous and how to physically control that).
• Signposting to other agencies or services, or employing a well-being worker for specific support that we’re not always able to provide. We are well connected and embedded in our respective communities in Bradford and Cardiff, so we know the right networks and agencies that can provide support. 

Or, it could be practical:

• Does this person need help with registering as self-employed? 
• Do they need a daily reminder text to relay scheduling information?
• Do they need support accessing a new space or event for the first time? (e.g. arranging travel for older people with limited mobility to attend Posh Club, or creating an access video of the bus routes for a show that might be out of town. 
• We pay attention to the details – access to toilets, if there’s food, what’s on the menu? Is there a place to pray? Is there a place to chill?

It could involve removing barriers to improve access:

• Supporting with childcare or access costs
• Paying everyone fairly for their time and expertise – including young people! 
• Supporting participants to create access riders to ensure our spaces, rehearsals and project plans are accessible. This covers many things including physical access, cognitive processing, mental health needs, caring responsibilities, challenging home / school / personal situations all of which have a significant impact on engaging in a project or process.

Chantal Williams, Community Producer for Common/Wealth in Cardiff says:

“When you are working with people from their lived experience to create a show or campaign that centres something that is pertinent or essential to their lives; passion and humanity should be at the centre of the work. 

Caring for the wellbeing of people runs deeper than the time they are in the process with you, being aware of how the process will have an impact on them: emotionally, financially or on how they are seen and viewed. 

It could be upskilling, training that is relevant to that person’s trajectory or even bus fare. Being aware of the circumstances, access needs, the ways in which people work and consistently temperature checking how people are throughout the process is key to ensuring a safe and comfortable environment and an enriching experience for all to explore the themes of the work. 

Care also extends to allowing agency on how people present themselves and their stories, providing the tools and support to allow people to be brave and feel supported in pushing their boundaries comfortably.” 

Our approach to care is person-centred, flexible and without judgement. We don’t make a person fit a project, we make the project work around the people involved.

If you’re interested in making  care more central to your work but don’t know where to start, Co-Artistic Directors Evie and Rhiannon have created a starting point guide to working with care which you can read in their book Do It Yourself: Making Political Theatre which will be published later this year Or you can get started with this excerpt below:

Here’s how we take care:

We accept people as they are – we say, please come as you are.

We never lose sight of the person or the people, regardless of how difficult the challenge is.

We trust people to know the situation that they are in, to know what they need and what the best course of action is – sometimes it’s just about supporting them with that.

 We know that people are capable of the most inspiring things.

We know that sustained under-investment has created deep stresses in working class communities, and that these get expressed in different ways. 

We create space and time to talk about whatever is coming up.

We don’t insist on keeping to schedules – we work around what’s coming up in people’s lives – changing plans and direction as and when needed.

Some shows take a long time to develop, because that’s how long it takes to create the right relationships and to make a show work around the complex stuff that happens in people’s lives. Sometimes, because of that stuff, brilliant shows never get made and it is right to let them go.

We appreciate the skills that all the crew bring and involve the performers in this too so there’s appreciation for everyone’s talent and energy.

We stay in touch with the why – why we’re making the show, that it’s bigger than all of us.

Sometimes people who have felt class injustice have run away from the place they grew up in for good reasons and they carry a lot of pain. We hold that carefully, supporting but not smothering people. Often, it’s just about being there to listen.

We have chats around these questions – how are we going to work as a group? How is the group dynamic having an impact on all of us, and on the work? How can we nurture each other better, creating an environment that is good to work in and is generative?  

We talk about the risks of sharing personal experiences in workshops and in performances. It can be exposing and exhausting. We make sure people know that they are in charge of what goes into (and what has to be taken out) of a show. 

When people have a free license to tell their story they can go anywhere and some of the places they go might be hard for other people to hear and even cause offence. We talk about the parameters needed around the work and make agreements that protect everyone.

People unfamiliar with the freelance world who decide to take a break from their normal lives to be part of your show need support to understand what they are taking on. The choices they have and the consequences of those choices. Before we start, we talk through how they will navigate their return to everyday life once the show is over.

Where people are taking a break from normal commitments to be in our plays, we pay them properly. We implement compassionate and fair working practices (taking breaks, working accessibly etc.)

Shows end, people have a downer. They’ve been on a high and then there’s a crash. We plan ahead to keep supporting people after the close community ends. This might include check ins, team catch ups or finding other opportunities they can get involved with. We keep in touch with people afterwards.