Introduction
The MH Covid Response Grant was part of the Welsh Government’s COVID-19 response to the pandemic, supporting wellbeing through engagement with health boards, local authorities and the third sector.
During this project we connected with people using creativity as a tool for increasing wellbeing, reducing social isolation and creating a gallery of work to help people express themselves and share their world with a wider community.
With support from Cwm Taf University Health Board, BAVO, Bridgend County Borough Council, Interlink and Welsh Government.
The Projects
- Capturing Moments
- The Wallich
- Mental Health Matters
- Reach (BAVO)
- Person-Centred Creativity for Wellbeing Training Programme for Social Prescribers and Social Care Workers.
1. ‘Capturing Moments’ (working with Local Community Co-ordinators)
Our Capturing Moments project began in February 2021.
The aim of this project was to connect people who may be feeling vulnerable, lonely, or struggling with their mental health, to boost their self-confidence and wellbeing and to reduce isolation. We developed and facilitated this programme with support and referrals from Bridgend (Ogmore) Local Community Co-ordinator Maria Bennett.
Creative workshops increased participants’ self-esteem, self-confidence, interpersonal skills, self-awareness, self-expression, resilience and wellbeing. Coming together online for the first time, women living in the Bridgend Borough worked with Breathe Creative artists to create a portrait of life during Lockdown.
This project captures shared moments of fun and laughter, of anger and tears, of joy and truth, illustrating how sharing creative experiences strengthened us during these strange and difficult times. This 14 month project was delightful and life-affirming and continually surprised and enhanced our lives.
Throughout the project we had weekly workshops online on Zoom. All participants received an art pack which was sent to their homes. As Covid restrictions eased we also met in person once a month at Nantymoel Boys and Girls Club in Ogmore Vale Welfare Hall and at Halo Ogmore Valley Life Centre.
This project offered a safe and therapeutic environment to support participants to reflect on, to share and to creatively express their experiences and feelings. We engaged 17 participants online and 5 participants at home.
“The project has been a real joy for everyone involved, participants and facilitators. Each week we have been blown away by how open and generous the participants are. They’re such a creative vibrant bunch, who massively encourage and support each other. We all really look forward to the sessions. Through a series of mindfulness exercises, creative writing sessions exploring different Lockdown themes and creative arts activities, the participants have been able to explore and process the situation they are in and to find a meaningful focus.”
(Maria Bennett, Local Community Co-ordinator)
Some of the participants had never accessed sessions online before and really enjoyed meeting people and that level of connection, as many of the group didn’t really see anyone else from week to week. Our Local Community Co-ordinator supported the women who needed more help to join the project, helping some with equipment and training to get online, encouraging others to take the plunge to join the group, and supporting those who wanted to join the project at home but not via the online group.
The project had such a positive impact on everyone involved. Participants really challenged and surprised themselves, it was described as a lifeline by the group, and friendships and relationships have continued to develop and grow. During the week, in between our sessions, everyone told us that they were bursting with creativity and had been working on their own art work and creative writing which they shared with the group at the start of each online session.
Our Capturing Moments exhibition was launched with great feedback from Huw Irranca-Davies MS at the Halo Ogmore Valley Life Centre in Nantymoel on the 7th September 2021, with friends, family and community members enjoying the chance to come together and enjoy the high quality and moving artwork on display.
The group also worked with animator Jane Hubbard to create an animated film ‘Future Dreaming’ using their artwork and the shared stories of their experiences of life in Lockdown.
You can see the online exhibition, gallery and animation ‘Future Dreaming’ created by this talented group by following these links.
Before this project and the funding that enabled it was finished, the group decided that they wanted to take the art that they had made and ‘pass it forward’, to encourage local children to take part, to be creative and to express themselves. To support this wish for a legacy from this project, our facilitators Emma Jones (artist) and Tracy Pallant (film-maker) facilitated a day of creativity for young people from Year 5 of Ogmore Primary School, using the exhibition as the inspiration for a new art exhibition to be created by the children in the Ogmore Valley.
As a result of being part of the Capturing Moments project one of the participants was accepted on to a Creative Writing MA course at Swansea University, something she says she would not have ever contemplated or had the confidence to do before joining this group.
Feedback from the facilitators:
“We’ve worked with Maria Bennett, Local Community Coordinator for Ogmore Valley Area, throughout the project; she has been instrumental in the project’s success. She attends every session and because of the trusted relationship she already had with the majority of the participants before the project, it gave them the confidence to take part.”
(Tracy Pallant, Breathe Creative)
“The individual wellbeing outcomes achieved have been amazing, from building individual confidence and reducing isolation, to people becoming more digitally confident and ‘Zooming’ GPs and family abroad. Some have discovered a new passion in painting and creative writing and one member has now enrolled on an MA in Creative Writing in Swansea University. Some have also said they had needed reduced input from formal services they were known to, social workers and mental health support team. The group are really supportive of one another and strong friendships have been formed. People have been shopping, socialising and doing crafting in each other’s houses.
It’s been both a pleasure and privilege to be part of something so positive at a time when it felt like there was little to be positive about. I’m beyond proud of this group of strong ladies and what they have achieved on so many levels and think this illustrates the power of social prescribing and what it can help achieve at the most difficult of times in promoting wellbeing. This couldn’t be achieved without the talents and experience of the Breathe Creative CIC team”.
(Maria Bennett, LCC, Ogmore Valley, BCBC)
Feedback from group members:
“I would like to thank you for doing this group. I cannot begin to explain how much this group has helped me. I didn’t realise how alone I was feeling, how much I had missed the one time I left the house each week (for the craft group in Ogmore). This has increased my self-confidence, I am writing and drawing again, I am challenging myself in ways I have never before. I’m enjoying myself. If you had told me three months ago that I would be physically drawing and painting, rather than digitally, I would never have believed you. And that I have not only been offered, but also accepted, commissions is something I would not have contemplated either. They may only be digital caricatures, but it’s something I love, and they seem to make people smile, something I definitely enjoy.”
(Participant)
“I’ve done drawings I would never have done before, I’ve met you lovely lot, I never thought in a million years that I would be doing anything on Zoom. Meeting other people and giving us something to do…”
(Participant – first time on Zoom)
“Because of my speech, I’ve never done Zoom or video calls before, and I have real problems with the telephone. This has opened up a new world for me, of communicating, it’s great. I actually find it easier than being in a room full of people, I can withdraw without people noticing, or I can participate, and it’s calm as well. I’ve got a video call booked with my cousin in New Zealand at the weekend, which I never thought I’d be able to do.”
(Participant)
“I think it will be tragic if Zoom is just forgotten, there’s so many people who have connected. I’m notoriously unreliable, and I’ve managed to turn up every week. I can’t normally turn up every week for things I pay for. I think it will be a shame if everyone forgets about Zoom because it does connect people who wouldn’t necessarily be connected, or couldn’t physically be connected either through distance or ability or disability, or shyness. It removes so many barriers, even though at the beginning, everyone was like ‘oh no we’re going to have to go on Zoom!’ – it looked like this massive barrier, but in actual fact I think it’s removed an awful lot of them.”
(Participant)
“Absolutely – if I want to go out it’s not just the wheelchair, it’s where I’m going – is it wheelchair accessible? I have to have someone who can drive the car and use the hoist to take me there, then there’s the social exhaustion, and that’s all gone, it removes the gumption traps. If you’re in a physical group you don’t get to talk to everybody, you’re in smaller groups and you don’t get that complete sharing. It was strange at first ‘cos we used to talk over each other but we don’t anymore.”
(Participant)
“Being part of a motivational group can lead to friendship and new adventures in self discovery. It’s like we spent a lot of time making a special soup where all the ingredients were important. V’s humour is delightful. I loved the random words session where we had to write a story – even though I struggled to be heard some weeks. I think Zoom is amazing technology – I felt a bit nervous about being seen and having to talk – but I am more confident now’
(Participant)
“A gathering of beautiful souls, trying to make sense of Covid-19. It is a non-judgmental, welcoming space that encourages members to express themselves creatively through a variety of means. There is no pressure on us to produce masterpieces and more emphasis is placed on inclusion and sharing.”
(Participant)
“Firstly, and most importantly, I have connected with wonderful people. These people include the socially awkward, shy, recluses that I have always wanted to meet but because of our reclusive nature never would have done so. I believe I have made friends for life.
Secondly, after receiving such great feedback from Emma and Tracy about my writing I enrolled for a master’s degree in creative writing”.
(Participant)
Capturing Moments Exhibition Launch at Halo Ogmore Valley Life Centre
2. The Wallich Projects – Art and Movement ‘Creative Community’
As part of this programme we wanted to connect with other partners to reach out further and engage people that were often hard to reach (especially during the pandemic) and who we felt would really benefit from our Person-Centred Creativity for Wellbeing activities.
We developed and facilitated a new project with The Wallich in Bridgend, working from Autumn 2021 to Spring 2022 and with support from their Creative Arts Coordinator Rosie Seager.
This project offered a mix of 2 art forms in each session, movement and visual arts, with the aim of creating a fun and uplifting activity to lighten the often stressful weekly lives of the community living with support from The Wallich.
Sessions took place online with a relaxed ‘drop in’ style, and as well as people joining from the Bridgend area, people took part from Wallich communities across Wales. We worked with an average of 8 people per session and sometimes participants brought their support workers with them into the Zoom sessions to join in. Sessions included 5 min warm ups with physical body stretches and relaxation followed by an art activity, word and picture games, and ended with a fun and energetic dancing to music wind down.
“Emma and June have been amazing, the sessions are fun and the group are really enjoying them. The mixture of movement and art is perfect, we all have a good laugh and I never fail to leave a session feeling uplifted, which I know is a feeling the participants share too… amazing practitioners, they are warm, friendly, fun and have a beautiful ability to encourage people to join without forcing and knowing when to let people sit back and watch and when to increase the pressure just enough to get people engaged.”
(Rosie Seager, Creative Arts Coordinator at The Wallich)
“We have people that drop in but we also have a group of regulars and the confidence and fun in having a go at some art is wonderful. We fill the session with chat and laughter, drawing and a warm-up and bit of disco.”
(Emma Jones, Breathe Creative Arts facilitator)
3. Mental Health Matters, Bridgend
Another development project as part of our MH Covid Response grant programme:
We connected with Mental Health Matters in Bridgend in 2021 through the network of MH Covid Response Grant-funded organisations and we worked together to devise this new creative project. We were keen to use this funding to reach out further and engage more people that were often hard to reach, and to build partnerships for future working and sustainability beyond the life of this funded programme:
“We would aim to support individuals accessing this service by referring into a Breathe Creative service which offers additional person centred holistic support to aid their recovery.”
(Michaela Moore, Director, MHM Bridgend)
This music and movement project was created as a result of our shared aims in terms of increasing the wellbeing of local service users. MHM felt that our Creativity for Wellbeing, Person-Centred approach would benefit their community and that music and movement would be an activity that could benefit both their physical and mental wellbeing.
Sessions ran from Autumn 2021 to Spring 2022 and were facilitated initially online due to Covid and then moved into face to face sessions in Bridgend. Working face to face was much easier and reached more service users due to the nature of the activity, and staff felt that the atmosphere in the building was improved, hearing the music and laughter from the sessions.
Feedback from participants and staff was positive and noted mood change and an increase in confidence, motivation and energy levels from those taking part:
“I just wanted to say how much our service users enjoyed Ruth and Elaine’s Friday group. It was one of the most warmly received groups we have ever run in the 10 years I have worked within our Wellbeing team. Both Ruth and Elaine have been fantastic – they’ve showed empathy, warmth, commitment and very importantly a great sense of fun in the running of the group. As with our other groups, attendance has only started to really pick up in the last couple of months, coinciding with easing of the Covid situation and restrictions; the last few groups were at full capacity.”
(John Crockett, Wellbeing Coordinator, MHM)
One participant was so inspired that she reconnected with her love of creativity and returned to photography again, sending us feedback and beautiful photographs from her walks in nature after our sessions:
“I’m a service user at Mental Health Matters Wales in Bridgend. I would love to leave a little review on the amazing work done by Elaine and Ruth in the Breathe Creative sessions run on Friday mornings.
I have to admit, initially I was apprehensive. I didn’t feel I would be able to comfortably partake in the sessions they offered. However in just a few sessions with their guidance and support I feel much more confident in myself. I find myself looking forward to the sessions they run on a weekly basis. The blend of music and movement is suitable for all abilities and are so fun and enjoyable you almost forget they are exercise within themselves.
I have recently been involved in trauma therapy. I believe that these sessions have massively helped me with my trauma work too, they have provided me with a way to construct new neurological pathways and have guided me to a fun and easy way to let go of my thoughts and relieve stress.
Both Ruth and Elaine are totally inspirational… their energy is contagious and guidance is gentle yet powerful. Our little group grew in leaps and bounds in confidence while the numbers of those involved grew consistently with every member feeling the benefit of being involved.
I really hope I get the opportunity to partake in future sessions with them both as they have made such a big impact on my confidence and mental health.”
(Participant)
4. ‘Reach’ – Creativity for Well-being Project (Working with BAVO Navigators)
This was another partnership project, working with BAVO and offering a new online ‘Arts for Wellbeing’ on referral project, funded through our MH Covid response grant.
BAVO Social Prescribers identified individuals in the community who they felt would benefit from the sessions. They helped participants to download Zoom and encouraged people to come to the sessions. Before the start of the project each participant received a parcel with arts materials and resources.
We facilitated 12 online creative arts and relaxation sessions from Autumn 2021 to Spring 2022. We offered relaxation and a person-centred approach in a safe environment for adults who were struggling with mental or physical health problems and/ or are lonely and isolated.
The workshops provided participants with a meaningful focus. We used a person-centred, non-judgmental approach, ask open questions, and explored how the participants are feeling, encouraged their input throughout the workshops. There is no right or wrong way in creativity and no previous experiences were necessary or needed to join. The group built trust and acceptance and supported each other, celebrating each others’ input and achievements. Participants built on their strengths and learnt positive coping mechanisms.
Our workshops aimed to: improve self-esteem; improve self confidence; improve interpersonal skills; increase self-awareness; break negative patterns of behaviour; improve resilience and increase wellbeing.
Many of the participants are lonely and isolated because of mental and physical health problems. ‘Participant E’ is elderly, she had a stroke and she struggles to leave her house without help. She quickly learnt how to use the iPad and Zoom and became a regular member of the group:
“I find the sessions relaxing, they motivate me to write even outside the sessions. This group makes a difference to my week.”
Feedback from participants included:
“I have been ill and have felt really down, I need to start seeing more people
and to get out more often.”
“I am determined to get better after my stroke.”
“I enjoyed the session and I am please that I managed the technology to come on-line.
I love this group it gives me something I look forward to.”
“I can open a gallery now, I haven’t done any art since school but now I can’t stop!”
“I really enjoyed the mindfulness and the tapping.”
“Thank you for listening to me…”
“I enjoyed writing, I keep this notebook now next to me and keep adding to it.”
“You have been a lifeline – to be connected with someone who has therapeutic skills and to have a space to be creative.”
“I was very lonely and isolated, I was depressed. I don’t go out. The session really help me, I always feel lighter afterwards.”
“I feel supported and relaxed, it has been so important to have support during this difficult time.”
“I just want to thank you for all your support in every session. It has helped with my confidence and trust and allowing me to express myself in a safe place.”
5. Training Programme: Creativity for Wellbeing, A Person-Centred Approach: Experiential training for Social Prescribers, Health and Social Care workers
We developed a new ‘taster’ training programme with the final part of our MH Covid Response funding in 2022, with the aim of making new connections and collaborations, reaching out to new potential partners and building the work of Breathe Creative.
We hope that this training helps to extend both the sustainability and the impact that this funding programme has enabled, both for the people we work with and for our organisation as a whole as we move out of the pandemic and into the future. The need for collaborative working, for sharing resources and learning, and for finding effective and creative approaches for increasing the wellbeing of our communities is vital.
We have developed and facilitated two online courses, receiving a great deal of interest and positive feedback from course attendees. We have a waiting list of people and organisations that are keen to join with us to explore these issues and learning in the future.
Our training sessions offer a reflective space to explore the impact of the pandemic on our personal and professional lives and how to move forward, exploring themes including:
- How to reach the most vulnerable people.
- How to use creativity and relaxation online as an intentional intervention.
- How to increase self-confidence, self-esteem and self-awareness.
- How to work collaboratively with other professionals and participants using a strengths-based approach
- How to create a safe environment for participants to build trust, connect with others and break their social isolation.
