Theatre in the community
Unlock Drama CIC extends its award-winning rehabilitative theatre practice into the community, empowering young people, students, and people on probation to transform their futures. Building on over a decade of success within the criminal justice system, we deliver preventative and reintegration projects that aim to reduce first-time offending and reoffending.
Our work bridges key areas:
Prevention
Supporting young people at risk of offending and young people with convictions in the community to avoid entering or re-entering the criminal justice system.
Education
Delivering creative interventions within schools to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline through inclusive, confidence-building, drama-based workshops.
Reintegration
Supporting people on probation and those in Approved Premises to successfully reintegrate into society through intensive theatre-led rehabilitation projects.
Unlock Drama’s community projects deliver the same core outcomes as our prison-based work: improving confidence, enhancing interpersonal skills, developing emotional literacy, encouraging pro-social behaviours, and boosting mental health and wellbeing. We address key societal concerns such as substance misuse, mental health awareness, violence reduction, gang culture, and the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
We work flexibly across a wide range of community settings, including:
- Youth Offending Teams (YOTs)
- Secure Children’s Homes / Secure Accommodation Network (SAN)
- Schools (Primary, Secondary, SEND, SEMH, PRUs)
- Probation Services / Approved Premises
- Wellbeing Hubs
- Alternative Education Providers
Through Applied Theatre, we deliver purposeful, creative interventions that enhance life skills, promote wellbeing, and increase participants’ motivation to engage in education, training, and employment opportunities. Our trauma-informed approach supports sustainable rehabilitation and builds positive future pathways.
The Societal Impact of Our Work
The economic and social cost of offending is enormous. It costs approximately £51,724 a year to keep one person in prison (UK Parliament Source), compared to around £4,500 per year to supervise someone on probation (TheyWorkForYou Source). Meanwhile, reoffending costs society £18 billion annually (UK Parliament Source).
Rehabilitation is everyone’s business. It is a societal problem that Unlock Drama is proud to be tackling head-on — helping to reduce the human and financial cost of crime while unlocking brighter futures for individuals and communities alike.
Links to add maybe to the numbers listed in above text rather than the brackets?:
Cost of keeping one person in prison (£51,724 per year):
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-08-30/3546
Cost of supervising someone on probation (£4,500 per year):
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-08-30.3546.h
Cost of reoffending to society (£18 billion annually):
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-03-09/137323