Ariel Trust is an Educational Charity based in Liverpool that was set up in 1982 to improve the life chances of young people and give them a greater understanding of and access to Media from which they feel alienated. We aim to support the development of resilient young people, working with them to tackle important issues in their lives.
Our mission is to "improve the quality of education. We will develop models of best practice based on multimedia projects tackling social themes. At the heart of our work is an evidence-based approach designed to motivate and engage young people changing their attitudes, behaviour and levels of achievement".
This is achieved both through face to face work with disadvantaged young people and through the development of anti-violence education programmes, which are used by schools across the UK.
Since 2007 we have developed a suite of interactive software programmes that support teachers to respond to challenging social issues. The resources take a skills-based approach to preventative education and are designed to be used in mainstream education settings, both primary and secondary.
The issues that we address are decided in consultation with young people, public sector partners and with teachers and represent the current and emerging threats to our young people. These include racial and homophobic bullying, alcohol misuse and grooming and sexual exploitation.
Ariel’s software based resources were originally developed for schools in Liverpool; since 2012 we have been rolling them out more widely as part of the Big Lottery funded programme. During 2015/16 we had expanded our reach to work with more than 300 schools and 21,000 young people during the year.
Ariel’s team of staff and key creative partners is set up to design, develop and implement effective violence reduction. The process begins with listening to young people and for over 30 years we have been co-creating interventions designed to tackle important challenges faced by children and young people.
The team need to do more than listen however, we develop narratives around the experiences of young people and build those narratives into programmes of learning. The programmes of learning are tested through partnership with external practitioners and experts so that refinement and improvement can be undertaken. The team has to be able to receive feedback from multiple sources and respond creatively to that feedback in order to develop the most effective violence reduction resources.
Ariel Trust is an educational charity (Charity Number 519688). We were established in 1982 to work with disadvantaged young people and use digital multimedia to re-engage communities and improve the life chances. We are supervised by a Board of Trustees and supported by a wide range of Public Funders, Trusts & Foundations.