The Roses Art Lift programme, which has seen 30 people referred, either through their GPs or their health visitors, to attend creative workshop sessions each week between January and May 2012, has had participants demanding more as the planned series comes to an end.
Desperately keen to continue the workshops, and to receive their obvious benefits, three participants have taken it upon themselves to create and plan a new course to act as a follow on to Art Lift, called Arts For Health, which they hope will encourage other Art Lift alumni to attend. The aim for Arts For Health is to ensure that participants are able to continue to meet regularly for creative projects, to work towards eradicating the stigma associated with depression and mental health problems, and to ensure that the Art Lift legacy can continue as an active prominent force in their daily life.
Last years programme:-
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| Last years programme - but gives you an idea of the activities on offer |
“This is really encouraging” says Sarah Blowers, Take Part Director at The Roses. “Art Lift is an arts intervention that works with people who suffer from anxiety and who struggle with confidence issues, so the fact that these people in particular are fired up enough to develop their own scheme is amazing”.
Determined to see this through, the first hurdle for Emily Smith, Abi Bunt and Cyril Bunt is to raise funds for the project, as they need to pay for the cost of the facilitator to run the project and to provide the materials for themselves and other participants.
Using The Roses’ Cafe Bar as a base, the trio plan to host an Open For All Coffee Morning on the first Wednesday of every month from 10.30am – 11.30am which costs £2.50. There will be children’s activities, storytelling and coffee and cake for all. The proceeds of which will be donated to aid the funding of Arts For Health.
“We really enjoyed taking part in The Roses’ Art Lift programme” explains Cyril “ As I started to build relationships with other people in the group, I found that I was really looking forward to the next session, and my confidence and outlook on life improved week on week. I got talking to some other participants and we all realised that we were not looking forward to the day the workshop ended, so we decided to do something about it”
Emily, Abi and Cyril are all young parents with a desire to continue to meet other people who struggle with anxiety, confidence issues and mental health problems. Having experience firsthand the benefits of having a structured arts intervention course in their personal daily life, they now are determined step out of their comfort zone even further by hosting this monthly coffee shop to raise funds to get the Arts For Health project off the ground.
The Coffee Shop takes place at The Roses on the first Wednesday of every month from 10.30am. Having successfully raised £15 at the first one in the start of May, they hope that the ‘open to everyone’ atmosphere will attract a good number of people at subsequent Coffee Shops in June, July, August and throughout the autumn.
This demand for more by Art Lift participants coincides with The Roses’ announcement that they have been successful in their application for additional funding to continue the Art Lift Course for new participants which launches in September.
If you would like to support Arts For Health programme, the course created by Emily, Abi and Cyril, which aims to follow on from Art Lift, attend the coffee mornings, or speak to Sarah Blowers, The Roses Take Part Director on tpdirector@rosestheatre.org
If you would like to join Art Lift in September, ask your GP to refer you onto the programme, or request a free referral form from Debora Hewlett by emailing assistant@rosestheatre.org. Your health professional must counter sign the form.
Beckie Smith
Marketing and Press Manager
The Roses
Sun Street
Tewkesbury
GL20 5NX
Email: beckie.smith@rosestheatre.org
Direct Dial: 01684 853070
www.rosestheatre.org
Box Office: 01684 295074
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