The Back to Back Theatre film internship program for people with intellectual disability: A summative evaluation

ABSTRACT

Background

Internships may be a successful pathway for increasing employment rates among people with intellectual disability. This paper presents a summative evaluation of a brief film internship program for people with intellectual disability.

Method

At the commencement and conclusion of the internship, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight interns and 10 mentors. The interview material was analysed thematically.

Results

Five themes described the experiences of interns: enhancing intern skill development and recognising gaps, building intern confidence, providing interns with assistance, meeting interns’ expectations of the program, and working towards ongoing employment. Four themes were present in the discussions with mentors: drawing on previous experience with people with disability and mentoring roles, feeling confident in a mentor role, providing mentors with support, and reflecting on interns’ future job prospects.

Conclusion

Although the program developed interns’ skills and confidence, an expanded program appears needed to generate open employment outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Intellectual disability
• employment
• internship
• film
• arts

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge and thank Back to Back Theatre staff and the interns and mentors of the Film Internship program. We pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians of the Lands where our research took place, the Wathaurong people of the Kulin nation, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The evaluation was commissioned by Back to Back (B2B) Theatre from funding received in 2019 through the National Disability Insurance Scheme with Australian Department of Social Services and Information Linkages and Capacity Building grant scheme.