Arts and Health South West (AHSW) is supporting creative practitioners and the arts and health sector as the country recovers from Covid. You can help us provide free and subsidised training and development opportunities to freelance creative practitioners who are themselves struggling to sustain their practice amid current financial challenges.

Why is AHSW fundraising for this work?

As we recover from the impact of the pandemic, non-clinical and creative approaches to health can provide an effective and cost-effective route to keeping people well and reduce pressure on overstretched health services. However, the post Covid landscape is a difficult time financially for creative practitioners who provide these non-medical interventions. Creative practitioners need training and support to manage the challenges of working with individuals with complex needs, including increased needs resulting from Covid.

AHSW, is committed to tackling health inequalities and see the integration of more creative providers in healthcare delivery as an opportunity to address the wider social determinants of health, especially as we recover from the pandemic. AHSW want to increase access and to help more people experience the arts and culture for the benefit of their health and wellbeing across the South West and need to support the arts and health workforce to be ready, ensuring individual practitioners and organisations are appropriately trained and have the knowledge to work with marginalised communities. This work includes ensuring facilitators are co-producing work with those with lived-experience and bringing in expert by experience knowledge and skills to help ensure the work is genuinely meaningful.

Therefore, with your help, this fundraising appeal will enable us to offer creative practitioners free and subsidised training over the next 12 months, including co-production and trauma informed training, as well as capacity building and funding development to support quality arts and health practice for cultural organisations across the South West region.

Your support will help us to inform and provide:

- Creative practitioners and cultural organisations with the latest developments in social prescribing, by providing evidence and practical toolkits, and helping make local connections into the developing social prescribing infrastructure.

- Free/subsidised training for creative practitioners and cultural organisations to ensure they understand co-production and trauma informed practice.

- Financial support for those with lived-experience allowing them to participate as experts by experience and creating new and vital work for freelance practitioners in the South West.

- Access to local demographics and health profile data to ensure our South West community is well informed about service user experience and health inequalities in their locality.

- Action Learning Sets focused on learning about power structures and shared decision making, providing safe and supportive forums for practitioners to identify and explore real issues they face in their work.

- Facilitated co-mentoring and skill-sharing sessions to develop co-produced work between cultural organisations/ creative practitioners and individuals with lived experience of ill-health.

Donations of any size make a real difference because, as a small charity, AHSW could not do what we do without the backing from individuals who value enhancing health and wellbeing through creativity. As a thank you here are some rewards for suggested donations.

Suggested donations:

- Any donations over £100 will be rewarded with a downloadable AHSW supporters logo

- Any donations over £2000 will be offered acknowledgement as a Campaign Patron*

*Patrons will be acknowledged through AHSWs communications including through our monthly e-bulletins, the AHSW website, and on all publicity for our Creative Joy event in July. Also, Campaign Patrons will be offered a free ticket to Creative Joy and to our AHSW annual conference in November. Find out more about these donation rewards via our website >>

Our fundraising campaign 'Towards Tomorrow: Recovery Through Creativity' is running for 8 weeks from 1st June, to celebrate the lead into our 'Creative Joy' event in July 2022. Creative Joy, a day-long event in Devon, offers a chance for creative practitioners, healthcare professionals, and people with lived experience of ill-health, to come together and use creativity to reconnect. We believe it is important to offer those who work in healthcare settings and communities with the most vulnerable or overlooked members of society a chance to experience the benefit of creativity for their own wellbeing, and have a day of creative reconnection and respite as we emerge from the pandemic.