PHOENIX RISING

In 2018, the trust heard from many parents and teachers about the anxieties and traumas that youth were facing. We decided to create a theatre project to interactively explore these themes with the community, a project that became known as Phoenix Rising. 

Phoenix Rising brought together youth with mental and emotional health issues looking to share their stories and be empowered in the process. Under the unifying theme that we are all in this together, we explored themes pertaining to insecurities, bullying, being misunderstood by parents, the dangers of social media, sexual traumas, and the false sense of invincibility youth feel, especially when in the face of the law.

Individual stages were built for each of the stories and then told in a multitude of ways; through song, dance, art, and more. This interactive theatre piece was held at Donnellan Orchards, and opened to the public on May 5 2018.

A Cautionary Tale

From Phoenix Rising, one of the youth’s stories became the trust’s main focus, as we believed it could have a positive outcome for others, and potentially help this particular youth who was facing possible life imprisonment for the selling and distribution of Class A drugs.

Within weeks, the new project was given a name: A Cautionary Tale.

While under bail conditions, the young man worked alongside trained actors, our resident drama therapist, Maxine Donnellan, and several of our youth workers, to create a programme about the dangers of the dark web and illicit substances.

We worked with police, lawyers, actors, professionals, teachers, community members, and so many more, to tell the story of a young boy whose unprocessed trauma and drug use had led him to make decisions that had dire consequences. The object of this programme was to share a cautionary tale with other youth, and to foster a therapeutic effect for the youth in question. 

What started out as a small community event, Phoenix Rising, quickly became something greater. Social workers and counsellors from various schools and youth services, including Melanie Talkington from Te Waka trust, Tom Dowling from Mahurangi College, and Ashley Prictor from the Springboard Trust, were inspired by the young man’s heartfelt sincerity and regret, and assisted the trust in getting his story heard by as many as possible. 

As part of the programme, the young man worked with several of our youth mentors to create a video detailing his experience. This video took several months to produce and was extremely cathartic for those involved. Initially, we used an actor to tell the young man’s story, but as time went on, he came to terms with his journey and felt comfortable enough to play himself. He didn’t want to be “that guy” anymore. He wanted to help other people his age not make the same decisions he did.

The video, along with recounts of the programme, were viewed by the judge and jury of his case. The trust then attended his court hearing and witnessed the young man’s sentence be reduced from life imprisonment to 11 months home detention. The judge said this was a direct result of the restorative work he’d done in the trust. The judge also asked for the trust’s contact details so that she could work with us in future. 

The young man at the heart of A Cautionary Tale is now a leading youth mentor of the trust.