A significant number of participants of our mental health programmes don't use email or have digital access. While we are thrilled that over 200 people have already signed up for our Keeping Us Together online project, we need help to ensure that we can keep in touch with and provide our most vulnerable participants with creative activities and art materials, so that they too get the opportunities to create and connect.

We want to collate and hand-deliver or post printouts of step-by-step creative projects designed by our artists along with basic art materials to vulnerable participants without access to technology, so that they can enjoy them at home.

£5 pays for petrol costs for a volunteer driver delivering a pack of art materials to someone struggling at home without access to the centre.

£10 pays for 8 vulnerable people to receive a pack of creative activity printouts in the post to brighten their day.

£20 pays for a vulnerable participant to receive a full pack art materials to be delivered to their door so that they can still be inspired, connected and creative through our Keeping Us Together project.

£40 pays for 30+ vulnerable participants without digital access to receive a pack of creative activity printouts in the post to brighten their day.

We're grateful for any contribution you can afford - it all adds up!

We support 300+ people with acute mental health needs every year. Many are carers or are older who may lose contact with family members or experience deaths in the family. Some have other long-term conditions and are therefore at greater risk of more serious health issues should they contract COVID-19, plus a longer period of shielding. Most are economically disadvantaged and extremely vulnerable to immediate and post-Covid economic downturn, and some are young people already identified as at risk of mental ill health which could mean that their wellbeing is more likely to be threatened as a result of enforced social isolation. All will experience increased pressure on their own mental health and that of their immediate families or communities.

The demand for our service is likely to increase dramatically as mental health issues affect more and more people during and post-pandemic. We need to be in a position to respond to this demand, both remotely, but ultimately by getting back to what we do best which is providing creative activities from our fabulous new base at Hat Works with our existing team. Any money raised above the target will be used to develop our online mental health services and continue our charitable work from the centre.

We have a 25-year track record supporting vulnerable people with a highly experienced and skilled team in place using creative activities to support recovery and maintain wellbeing. We understand the impact of social isolation, on those already experiencing mental illness but also the wider population, including those at risk of developing first time mental health issues. As we can no longer deliver our usual and planned sessions, we have developed flexible creative activities that directly address this, and have adapted a model for remote delivery. We are thus ready to support communities both now and post-lockdown.

We will lose income that we anticipated from hosting student social workers, our cafe and retail offer, events, public workshops, courses, commissions & projects plus regular cash donations at the centre. However, we are already actively supporting vulnerable people, and so need additional resources to do this remotely - posting, copying, making up & sending art packs, providing some participants with the technology to enable them to participate in programmes, continuing to pay for a team to plan and deliver programmes, which includes the core team, artists and volunteers who we are committed to continue to provide opportunities for during this difficult time.

Find out more about Arc and our work on social media or https://bit.ly/ArcSUPPORT