The Red Room Company - Unlocked

Unlocked

Unlocked is an educational arts program developed and run by The Red Room Company in collaboration with educational staff from NSW Correctional Centres, which 'unlocks' the potential of inmates through poetry. The initiative's goal is to encourage self-expression and reflection while improving inmates' literacy. Introduced in Sydney in 2010, the project has entered its third year.

At correctional centres across NSW, Australian poets run intensive writing workshops, collaborating with students on every stage of the writing process: from the initial exercises and experimentations, through the editing and rewriting process, to recording, performing and publishing their work in a professionally designed print anthology.

The project was developed in collaboration with Corrections NSW Audiovisual Unit and education staff, 2SER's Jailbreak radio show, Blood & Thunder Publishing Concern and Boccalatte.

• Current Unlocked Projects

The most recent Unlocked project was held at the Balund-a Project, a residential diversionary programme for male and female offenders between 18 and 40. Indigenous poet Lionel Fogarty led the workshops, and the students responded with great enthusiasm to Lionel's work and stories. There was a particular interest in Lionel's use of language, his mixing of English and Bandjalang dialect.

In October 2012 Red Room Company poets Lionel Fogarty and Nick Bryant-Smith will travel to South Coast Correctional Centre to run an intensive, three day workshop.

• Project Outcomes

According to The Red Room Company, Unlocked offers a range of potential outcomes and benefits for the students involved. Through Unlocked, poets work with both with the vocational education providers working in NSW Correctional Centres, as well as education providers such as ACE Community Colleges, an Adult Education provider and Registered Training Organisation which runs accredited courses in the Balund-a Project.

At the completion of each project, a limited-edition anthology of work created during the project is published. These publications are made available to inmates who participated in workshops, and is distributed among libraries in correctional centres around Australia.

Through Unlocked, students can return to their community with recognised qualifications, as a part of the study that they have completed inside. In this way the value of the project is not only supporting students to come to terms with emotions, past experiences or relationships, but to build practical literacy and communication skills, and the confidence to apply them.