Creative Health Lead – May Roundup

Image Credit: David Shrigley

It’s been another busy month for me as I continue my work as Creative Health & Equity Lead across Norfolk & Suffolk. Here’s a roundup from May.

May has been a month of connecting, starting with the Norfolk VCSE Assembly meeting. As previously mentioned the ICB has been undergoing a restructure, and the VCSE Assembly for Norfolk are joining forces with the Suffolk VCSE Assembly for a joint newsletter, which means everyone across both counties will get the same news at the same time. They’re also moving over to a new platform that will host all information and recordings in one place, making everything much simpler to find, and putting on more regular webinars and engagement events so you can catch up more consistently. I will share the links to these once they become available.

May also provided an opportunity to connect with colleagues across the sector, at the Norwich & Norfolk Engagement Party. This one day symposium showcased the work of Festival Connect & Create a programme of participation and engagement taking place across East Anglia: Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Sharing real-life practice, and best approaches to creating socially engaged work with children, young people and their communities.

Image credit – Claire Atherton

I was delighted to facilitate the first face to face Creative Health Interest Meeting (CHIMe) during Creativity & Wellbeing Week. The meeting was entirely focused on practitioner wellbeing, with facilitated sessions on avoiding burnout and managing wellbeing. To read more about the May CHIMe click here.

Image credit – Claire Atherton

Finally, initial work has been getting underway on the Norfolk & Suffolk Creative Health Region Place Partnership project. Funding with a total project value of £1million, including £350,000 investment from Arts Council England has unlocked a further £250,000 in funding and £500,000 in time, capacity, resource, and expertise.

This multi-partner project will work across cultural, creative, health, social care, education and innovation sectors to bring the health and wellbeing benefits of culture and creativity to more people. Click here to read the full Creative Health Region Funding announcement.

I will endeavor to write these monthly roundups as a way of sharing the work I am doing to develop the Creative Health Sector for Norfolk & Suffolk.

You can read the Creative Health Lead – April RoundUp here.

Thanks for reading, I hope you find them useful.

Stay tuned for next month’s edition.

For ways to add your voice to the Creative Health ecosystem, join the new Creative Health Interest Meetings (CHIMe) and/or sign up to the Norfolk & Suffolk Creative Health Mailing List to be kept informed of developments happening across the regions.