Ashe Performing Arts Company provides:

* Edutainment workshops for Trainers
* Edutainment workshops for Performers
* Edutainment workshops on behalf of Ministries of Education/Youth/Culture/Health throughout the Caribbean

We provide workshops in the area of:

* Personal Development & Empowerment
* Reproductive Health & Sexuality
* HIV/AIDS
* Crime and Violence
* Environment
* Afro-Caribbean Dance and Culture
* Culture in Education


Edutainment Musical


Ashe has created 9 Edutainment Musicals:



- Vibes in the World of Sexuality

- Parenting Vibes

- Solid

- Nuff Respect

- Hush

- Lift up Jamaica

- Curfew…the musical

- Curfew…the movie

- Children & AIDS

- Red Ribbon Diaries


Ashe has-

Trained over 2,000 Peer Educators in the Performing Arts

350 Teachers & Guidance Counselors in Innovative Methods of teaching Sexuality & Reproductive Health

300 Parents in Effective Parenting Skills & Tools

Creative Educational Materials

3 Scientific Studies showing Ashe’s EIC Model



Our Methodology


In the traditional model of youth development, youth are not empowered to make decisions. They receive mixed messages about acceptable lifestyles from peers, the media, parents, church, and the social scene. As such, they don’t make powerful decisions, they make decisions just to be accepted and to fit in with their peers, then change those decisions to please their parents and others. This means that there is no real commitment on their part, just ‘lip-service.’

Ashe operates on what it calls the Multi-layered EIC Edutainment Transformational Model- geared towards empowering youths, their parents and community leaders to live a healthy lifestyle and create a healthy environment within their communities. Ashe’s model is culture-based, coming from the African Tradition of using the arts as a developmental tool. Culture is underutilized as a method of combating the sexual challenges, because it stimulates youths from the entry point of the expressions they are already engaged in, such as: dance, drama, music, sports & story-telling.

Ashe uses these expressions to further the mission of meaningful participation and interaction in workshops and performing arts sessions/programs that combine recreation and skills building. One of the most important aspects of the Ashe model is that it is a new way of living and being that looks at a holistic understanding and application of the healthy living strategies in relation to four key social issues which are at the heart of healthy development for any human being in this millennium.

Most other developmental models/programs only look at either reproductive health or the environment, based on specialization according to skills or funding. In looking at empowerment, skills and choices in relation to conflict-resolution, the environment, drug abuse and reproductive health and sexuality, Ashe does work with both prevention/protection and development. This creates a mindset in the youths for an inclusive, balanced and healthy way of being – allowing them to choose powerfully. The Ashe Methodology as elaborated here, has three components that work together to create the Ashe EIC Edutainment Transformational Model: -i. The Multi-layered Approach. ii. EIC Edutainment Model iii. Transformational Model

Multi-layered Approach

Ashe’s multi-layered approach is concerned with how Ashe uses the Youth-at-the-Centre- concept of social/community development. We see youth at the focal point of a cascade of concentric circles, with parents, teachers, and community leaders forming the expanding circles around them. What this means is that everybody is on the same page, has the same vision and is sending the same message to the youth. The youth themselves are also involved and a part of the process for the health and development of their own lifestyles, environment and their community.


EIC Edutainment Model

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Ashe’s EIC Edutainment Model highlights the actual education process that participants in the program go through.

E = Excitement. Participants are excited through Edutainment musical performances; Incentives [to travel & perform]; Music videos learning through use of culture and the arts.


I = Involvement. Participants are involved by being part of the year long program of learning the performing arts and having regular workshop sessions. Play an active role. Whole approach is participatory. The involvement process includes: Brainstorming; Group discussions; Role-playing; Rap sessions; Research; sporting and performing arts classes & other activities. The more involved they are, the more clearly they get to see benefits and consequences of their actions. They get to feel the impact of experience and explore their own integrity, principles and values.


C = Commitment. Commitment takes place when youth are empowered to make choices and decisions and they do so in relation to social issues that are dealt with in the program. In dealing with the issues, participants get a chance to choose powerfully in regards to:

q HIV/AIDS – they choose to abstain, reclaim their virginity, protect themselves, or have unprotected sex.

q DRUGS – they look at all the drugs – the benefits and consequences and make choices based on the impact on self and others.

q EVIRONMENT – they assess the relationship between themselves and the environment [look at the impact on health etc.] and replenish, recycle, re-use, reduce

q CONFLICT/RESOLUTION – human rights of all others.


The youth therefore make commitments not just for personal health and lifestyle but also for the community, their families, the community, the country and the world.


Transformational Model

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The Transformational Model that Ashe uses is based on the image of people moving from the stage of ‘caterpillar’ to that of a ‘butterfly.’ It is really about letting go of the old way of being and creating a new way that is healthy and beneficial for all. There are three basic stages of this Transformational process: i. Recognition ii. Die to the old iii. Be born anew

In the Recognition stage, participants in the program come to an awareness of their own spiritual values and principles and look at issues of integrity. They also come to align themselves with a higher concept of life and way of being. They then Die to the Old. This is in keeping with the Afro-Caribbean ‘wake’ concept of death birth in the cycle/circle of life. Participants give up negative stereotypes about themselves and others, through forgiveness work and other techniques. In so doing, they free up themselves to Be Born Anew and fulfill the mandate that Ashe has as its mission – ‘to live a life of integrity and fulfillment, doing what they love and loving what they do.





The Evaluation of Guidance Counselor Training for Vibes

Summary

One hundred eight guidance counselors working for the Jamaica Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture were trained in the Vibes methodology in September 2001. A two-phase evaluation of this training was undertaken from 2001 through 2003 by Family Health International. The focus of Phase 1 (conducted during academic year 2001-2002) was on the perceptions of the newly trained guidance counselors of their experiences implementing the methodology in their particular circumstances. Also during this first phase, formative research was done with 12 to 14 year olds for the development of a self-esteem inventory to be used in Phase 2. The focus of Phase 2 of the evaluation (conducted during academic year 2002-2003) was on the impact of the training on the teaching of HFLE and sexual attitudes and behaviors. Eleven guidance counselors were chosen from the original 108 to participate in Phase 2, based on their experience with and commitment to use of the methodology in Phase 1. These guidance counselors agreed to integrate the use of the Vibes methodology for a core set of HFLE curriculum topics. Students taught the “integrated” curriculum were compared to a matched set of schools/classes being taught the “standard” curriculum using a quasi-experimental untreated control group with pre-test and post-test design. A school-based survey was administered in December 2002 (pre-test) and again in May 2003 (post-test). Focus group discussions were held with “Vibes” and “control” guidance counselors at the end of the exposure period. The exposure period for the “integrated” curriculum was limited to one semester only, due to delays in agreement on the core set of curriculum topics.

Focus group discussions with guidance counselors during Phase 1 demonstrated that they had felt some discomfort with the methodology when they first began using it but had overcome this discomfort by the end of the year. Their local environments had not been particularly supportive nor did they have time to complete the activities or have materials and equipment needed for them. They also felt it was necessary to alternate the Vibes activities with the standard HFLE curriculum because the Vibes manual did not cover all the topics required. Many of the concerns raised by the guidance counselors during Phase 1 were addressed in the design of the Phase 2 evaluation.

Survey results demonstrated differences between what was being taught using the integrated and standard curricula and how it was being taught.  The following topics were recalled being taught by a higher percentage of students in the integrated curriculum classes compared to the standard curriculum classes: abstinence, consequences of pregnancy, costs of having a baby, gender equality, talking to parents about sex, rape, media, being happy being who I am, why people have sex, being prepared for sex, stages between attraction and intercourse, talking to dates about having sex and having a positive attitude. The following activities were reported by a greater percentage of students in the integrated curriculum classrooms compared to students in the standard curriculum classrooms:  making a commitment to abstain/reclaim virginity, making a commitment to protect oneself when having sex, participating in games/energizers, skits, singing, dancing, role-playing, seeing condoms, watching videos, listening to songs or music, drawing, using a workbook or keeping a journal, doing homework assignments, singing “I love myself,” and talking in large groups. There were no topics or activities that were recalled more among students in the standard curriculum classes.

We examined the effects of curricula and time on the following outcomes: RH/HIV/AIDS knowledge; attitudes toward sexual responsibility and sexual irresponsibility and having ever had sex.  Increases in RH/HIV/AIDS knowledge increased from pre-test to post-test but there was no effect of type for curriculum. No differences were found between curricula or over time in sexual attitudes or the percentages of students who had ever had sex.  That is, there was no effect for either curriculum. The curricula are designed for a full year of implementation but this evaluation was limited to one semester of exposure.

These analyses controlled for the influence of several other factors also believed to be related to the outcomes of interest: sex, age, type of school and negative self concept. The self-esteem scale developed for this evaluation emerged as a Negative Self Concept scale, identifying students who were living in very difficult circumstances. Because we could not expect an HFLE class to change these circumstances, this was used as mediating factor in the analysis rather than an outcome variable. Among the variables included in our regression analyses to predict our outcomes we found that being in a secondary school was related to increased knowledge, positive attitudes toward sexual responsibility and negative attitudes toward sexual responsibility. Being male was positively related to negative attitudes toward sexual responsibility and having ever had sex. Age was positively related to having ever had sex. Negative self concept was related to lower knowledge scores, more positive attitudes toward sexual irresponsibility, negative attitudes toward sexual responsibility and having ever had sex.

During focus group discussions at the end of the 2002-2003 academic year, guidance counselors who had taught the integrated curriculum described the Vibes methodology as an interesting, informative and creative way for children to learn. They noted that the methodology encourages more class participation and gives students confidence to discuss topics related to sex and reproductive health that they were otherwise too shy or too scared to talk about with adults or peers. Guidance counselors described changes they could see in classroom behavior that they attributed to the trust and self control exercises in the Vibes manual. Because of these exercises, they felt that children were more likely to stop and think before acting aggressively. They also felt that the role playing exercises were especially powerful behavior change tools. In one exercise boys and girls are asked to reverse gender roles and the guidance counselors reported a change in how boys treated girls following this role play, including noticeably less use of derogatory language and inappropriate touching. While the guidance counselors believed that the advantages of the Vibes methodology outweighed the standard HFLE approach, they felt it was correct to integrate Vibes into the standard curriculum because there were some topics not covered in the Vibes manual that are required by the MOEYC.

In summary, training guidance counselors in the Vibes methodology and allowing them to use the methodology to teach selected topics in the standard HFLE curriculum, resulted in differences in what was taught and the kinds of classroom activities that were use to teach it. Most notably, students in the integrated curriculum classrooms were more likely to recall talking about abstinence, the consequences and costs of pregnancy, STIs and were more likely to have been asked to make a commitment to abstain from sexual behavior. No changes in knowledge, sexual attitudes or behavior that could be attributed to the integration of the Vibes methodology into the HFLE curriculum, but it is likely that the exposure time was too short to detect any differences between the two teaching methods. Sex, age, type of school and negative self-concept were found to be related to one or more of the outcomes and these results provide clues for targeting high risk students. Clearly the guidance counselors themselves were favorably impressed with the Vibes methodology and reported changes in their classrooms in behaviors that were not measured through our survey methodology.

Family Health International

Hope Enterprises, Inc

5/12/05