Streetwise Opera: Strategic Choices Between Depth and Scale

Authors: Dave Wilson (US / New Zealand), Hanna Wiskari (Sweden / New Zealand), Helen Ella (France / UK), Ismar Proic (Bosnia), Maria Arias Velasco (Spain)

BACKGROUND

In 2000, Matt Peacock, an opera critic and support worker, was volunteering at a London night shelter when a resident read aloud a remark from a politician: “The homeless are what you step over when you come out of the opera.” That comment became the catalyst for Streetwise Opera, an organization designed to reframe how society perceives homelessness by placing people with lived experience at the center of opera creation and performance.

Two decades later, Streetwise operates in London, Manchester, and Nottingham. The organization works with participants through weekly creative workshops and full-scale productions staged in professional venues. Outcomes reported by the charity include reduced isolation, increased self-esteem, and stronger social connections among participants.

BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL

Streetwise Opera’s core activities combine three elements. Weekly workshops provide continuity and structure for participants. Productions staged at venues such as the Royal Opera House and Nottingham Playhouse offer high-profile platforms for co-created work. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation systems capture outcomes including resilience, emotional wellbeing, and inclusion.

The organization’s Theory of Change emphasizes co-creation as a means of enabling participants to reconstruct identities beyond the label of “homeless.” Its Impact Business Model Canvas highlights a dual value proposition: meaningful creative engagement for participants and a shift in public perception of homelessness.

STRATEGIC CHALLENGE

By 2019, Streetwise Opera had expanded its programs to record levels of engagement. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, forced a sharp contraction. As the organization rebuilds, leadership faces a choice about how to direct its growth. One option is to pursue expansion into new cities and communities, broadening its reach. Another option is to prioritize depth by focusing on sustained impact for current participants.

Chief Executive Rachael Williams has indicated a preference for depth, emphasizing the need to strengthen long-term pathways for participants rather than simply adding more workshops and productions. Yet resource constraints, donor expectations, and the competitive landscape for arts funding complicate this strategic direction.

VALUE-ADDED CONCEPT

Interviews with the artistic and management teams revealed a specific challenge: Streetwise has limited mechanisms for following participant trajectories once they move beyond regular workshops. The team has experimented with roles such as Ambassadors and Bursaries, which allow alumni performers to take on paid responsibilities in production or outreach. Building on this idea, a Mentorship Programme is proposed as a structured pathway to deepen impact.

The Mentorship Programme would train selected alumni performers to become Teaching Artists within Streetwise’s core workshops. It would create paid opportunities while simultaneously building leadership capacity among participants. The model envisions group mentorship, with professional artists, support staff, and alumni working together to design and deliver sessions. This approach aligns with Streetwise’s ethos of co-creation by diffusing hierarchies and emphasizing shared learning.

IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS

The Mentorship Programme would require careful design and staged implementation. Initial co-design with participants would shape the structure of the program and ensure alignment with participant needs. A pilot phase of several months would allow for testing and refinement before a full launch.

Implementation raises several issues. First, the organization must determine how to measure impact in ways that satisfy funders while capturing the nuanced progress of participants. Second, staff and financial resources would need to be diverted from other priorities, requiring trade-offs. Third, the organization must preserve its collaborative culture while introducing a program that could risk creating power imbalances among participants.

IMPACT ANALYSIS

Evidence from research on peer mentorship in health and wellbeing suggests that support from peers with shared lived experience often resonates more strongly than professional interventions. For Streetwise, embedding past participants as Teaching Artists could strengthen its sustainability by creating a pipeline of leaders who are deeply connected to the mission. It could also provide donors with evidence of progression, demonstrating that participants are not only beneficiaries but also contributors and leaders.

At the same time, a mentorship program requires sustained investment of money, staff time, and organizational attention. These resources could otherwise be allocated to geographic expansion and outreach to new participants.

DECISION POINT

Streetwise Opera must determine whether to prioritize the Mentorship Programme as a way to deepen long-term impact, or to focus on geographic expansion to rebuild its scale post-pandemic. Both directions serve the mission of transforming perceptions of homelessness through opera, yet each entails distinct trade-offs in scope, sustainability, and resource allocation.