A group of youth offenders in the UK spent this summer participating in an arts program designed to provide an alternative to continual law breaking. Courses in painting, fashion, dance, and drama gave these troubled youth a productive outlet to channel their energy and a distraction from the temptation to break the law. Seven out of eight participants have been living crime free since they completed the program.

Said Linda McKevitt, the project leader of the Youth Offending Team, “A lot of them haven’t been in education for some time. They all thought art was just painting but they learned it’s a diverse thing. Embedded in the course is literacy and numeracy and we look at improving their standards. We did an assessment before and after the last years course and there was an improvement in every one of them.”

To read more about the childrens’ experiences in the program, click here.