The Verbatim Formula: Sometimes a Hug Goes a Long Way

veratim Formula （TVF）是一个由英国人权委员会资助的参与性行动研究项目，该项目位于伦敦玛丽女王大学，汇集了来自儿童护理公共部门、高等教育和艺术界的一系列合作伙伴，以支持年轻人进入和离开国家的护理。1992年，英国通过了1989年的《联合国儿童权利公约》（UN Convention on the Rights of the Child），该公约规定，“企业家长”在法律上有义务在影响儿童的事情上给予他们应有的尊重和感受。该项目旨在探索创造性实践能在多大程度上支持成年专业人士更好地倾听。TVF使用逐字剧场（一种需要仔细聆听和表演记录证词的形式），与有护理经验的年轻人作为共同研究人员合作，他们在护理和教育方面的知识使他们有资格成为“专家”。该项目的“便携式证词服务”为艺术中心、社会服务和大学办公室以及政策论坛的“弹出式”活动收集证词。TVF邀请年轻人和成年人之间进行有意义的面对面对话，旨在在日益频繁的教育和护理生活中创造专注和自发的对话。作为参与性行动研究，它旨在赋予参与者权力并为其提供支持，建立平台，以确定供应差距，揭露结构性不平等，并倡导变革。自2015年该项目启动以来，各种指标表明，由于长期的紧缩，护理系统面临着越来越大的压力。越来越多的人正在接受照料，而能够为易受伤害的年轻人提供所需支持的寄养照料者却不足。在2017-8年度，6000多名年轻人在寄养中心的安置经历了意外的结束。这种不稳定加剧了受照料儿童易受心理健康问题影响的事实，并危及其教育和生活成功所需的连续性。尽管法定要求倾听儿童的声音，但过度强调程序和文书工作阻碍了有效的沟通，并阻碍了与寄养照顾者和社会工作者之间的信任关系，而这正是儿童规划积极未来所需要的。在TVF的AHRC研究期间，其年轻的合作研究人员反复证明了与社会工作者的交易关系的有害影响，以及需要更多有爱心的寄养。一名15岁的年轻人告诉TVF，“进入护理中心的年轻人经历了很多。有时候一个拥抱能让你走很长的路。自2019冠状病毒病爆发以来，隔离和社会接触的重要性问题变得更加明显。这个后续项目将加深与年轻人在应用TVF实践方面的接触，使寄养照顾者和社会工作者能够理解他们在其专业角色中实践的情感方面，并考虑这些对关系的影响。在与社会参与艺术马戏团公司Upswing和声音艺术家Ian Dickinson的新合作中，TVF研究团队将与来自旺兹沃思和曼彻斯特的年轻人、社会工作者和寄养照顾者合作，在创意工作坊中将可获得的身体信任活动与关怀和仔细的倾听实践结合起来。一系列产出将支持第三部门合作伙伴Coram Voice的工作，在发展良好做法方面倾听年轻人的声音，以及培育网络在招聘寄养照顾者方面的工作。这些活动包括在巴特西艺术中心和曼彻斯特国际艺术节上与观众互动的表演，这将产生新闻报道；一系列以年轻人的真实生活经历为基础的电影，与社会关怀的污名化作斗争；以年轻人建议为中心的数字培训材料；以及准备提供给英国地方当局的互动研讨会。

The Verbatim Formula (TVF) is an AHRC-funded participatory action research project based at Queen Mary University of London that brings together a range of partners from the children's care public sector, higher education and the arts to support young people entering and leaving the care of the state. Responding to the adoption into UK law of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, that 'corporate parents' are legally obliged to give due regard to children's wishes and feelings in matters affecting them, the project aimed to explore the extent to which creative practice can support better listening by adult professionals.Using verbatim theatre, a form which requires care-ful listening and performance of recorded testimonies, TVF works with care-experienced young people as co-researchers, whose knowledge of care and education qualifies them as 'experts'. The project's 'Portable Testimony Service' gathers testimonies for 'pop-up' events in arts centres, social services' and universities' offices, and in policy fora. TVF invites meaningful, face-to-face dialogue between young people and adults, aiming to create attentive and spontaneous dialogue in the increasingly transactional life of education and care. As participatory action research it aims to empower and support its participants, building platforms from which to define gaps in provision, expose structural inequalities, and advocate for change.Since the project began in 2015, various indicators show that the care system is under ever greater pressure due to a long period of austerity. Increased numbers are entering care, and there are insufficient foster carers who can provide the support that is needed for vulnerable young people. In 2017-8, more than 6000 young people experienced unplanned endings to their placements in foster care. Such instability exacerbates looked-after children's well-documented vulnerability to mental health problems and jeopardises the continuity needed for their educational and life success. In spite of the statutory requirement to hear children's voices, an over emphasis on procedures and paperwork blocks effective communication and hinders the trusting relationships with both foster carers and social workers that children need to project a positive future.In the course of TVF's AHRC research period its young co-researchers repeatedly testified to the detrimental effects of transactional relationships with social workers, and the need for more loving foster care. As one 15-year-old told TVF, 'Young people who go into care have been through a lot. Sometimes a hug goes a long way'. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, questions of isolation and the importance of social contact have become even more evident. This follow-on project will deepen engagement with young people in applying TVF's practices to enable foster carers and social workers to understand the affective aspects of their practices within their professional roles and to consider the consequences of these for relationships. In a new partnership with socially engaged arts circus company Upswing, and sound artist Ian Dickinson, the TVF research team will work with young people, social workers and foster carers from Wandsworth and Manchester in creative workshops that integrate accessible physical trust activities with caring and careful practices of listening.A range of outputs will support the work of third sector partners Coram Voice, in listening to young people's voices in the development of good practice, and the Fostering Network in recruiting foster carers. These include a performance at Battersea Arts Centre and in the Manchester International Festival with audience interaction that will generate press coverage; a series of films based on young people's real life experiences that combat the stigmatisation of social care; digital training materials centring young people's advice; and an interactive workshop ready to be offered to UK Local Authorities.