Some of the Grants Team’s favourite projects involve seeing different groups we’ve supported over the years coming together to deliver something special. This award features one grant but shows what two local groups do best…
In April 2016, High Peak Community Arts were awarded £2,000 to extend their successful Creative Wellbeing project in partnership with Good News Family Care in Buxton.
Good News Family Care has a ‘family centre’ for homeless women and their children, with seven bedrooms for women made homeless for any reason, including those escaping domestic violence. It also has a recovery unit for women recovering from drug/alcohol dependency, with four bedrooms for the women and their children.
‘Creative Wellbeing’ devised by High Peak Community Arts alongside the women, aimed to enhance their self-esteem through working together, learning new skills, having fun and being creative by making artworks for their new environment. It involved the residents, staff, volunteers and community members (including women who have now set up their own homes).
It enabled participants to work together in a challenging way and resulted in a beautiful willow sculpture of an angel, named ‘Gabrielle’.
I had to learn to push through barriers. It was difficult – the perseverance for long sessions. Trying to focus for such a long time was challenging – we come from chaotic lives – but once you’ve done it, you know that you can persevere. You could see in other people how the project got them to really focus. I had no clue, no idea, that it’d be that good.
Participant of the Creative Wellbeing Project
The project built self-confidence and self-esteem, with participants proud of what they had achieved, and happy to be able to show that to others through a celebratory event.
