The Impact of Hip Hop Theatre Provision on Hard to Reach Youth- The Beatbox Academy

This doctoral research is proposed to perform a desktop review to identify relevant literature which supports young people's engagement in Hip Hop theatre and its impacts on hard to reach youth in particular, forming a theoretical framework. It aims to use an ethnographic research methodology, combined with interviews using creative methods to formulate a realistic impact evaluation of the work of Beatbox Academy and participatory action research, enabling the researcher to bring relevant expertise, knowledge and contributions to the research setting in real-time.

Proposition: The Beatbox Academy provides a third space to engage with hard to reach youth through outreach theatre activities. Young people's wellbeing is improved through the process of mentorship and social integration into Hip Hop theatre.

The research proposes to work through the above proposition using inductive research methods to prove the statement is correct. By careful crafting of research questions which young people and facilitators of the beatbox academy will answer, and by participant observation in the fieldwork conducted by the researcher, it is hoped the theory provided in relevant literature can be scientifically proven.

This will be supported through fieldwork and thematic data analysis, providing Goldsmiths, the Chase studentship and the Beatbox academy with an impact evaluation that may improve the service and provide empirical evidence to other Hip Hop/ Hip Hop theatre organisations to support their own work with hard to reach youth.

The difference the research will make: The research will help to improve youth provision at the beatbox academy.

It will help to provide empirical confirmation of the impacts of Hip Hop theatre in uplifting the wellbeing and social integration for hard to reach youth.

The research will help other organisations using creative Hip Hop methods to engage with hard to reach youth by providing a research driven theoretical framework and first hand evidence base

Provide a body of evidence which can be built on to support the development of new literature for Hip Hop theatre provision for other researchers and research centres.

It will provide young people from hard to reach youth a platform to share their voices, their struggles and how their wellbeing has improved using creative tools such as video interviews, highlighting the Beatbox Academy's work in improving the lives of young people.

The research will bring to light the motivations, challenges and the struggles of the team working at the Beatbox Academy in providing youth theatre provision, enabling the potential to receive further funding, academic and professional support for their service with the voluntary sector. Why this research is relevant, realistic and interesting:

There is a need within academia to document the impacts of Hip Hop related youth provision of all kinds. Being a long established charitable organisation, The Beatbox academy requires academic validation in spotlighting its contribution to youth theatre. The research is relevant because it combines both academia and the voluntary sector in this case, to grow the disciplines of both fields in collaboration.

The research is realistic because the Beatbox Academy has a long proven success rate in working with hard to reach youth, and has grown substantially in terms of reach and funding. Unlike other voluntary organisations, there is a strong chance it will exist for the next three years. The researcher is then enabled to ethnographically study its work and bring academic rigour and scientific approaches into its work as a participatory action researcher and document its output as work progresses.