Creative Health Lead – April 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 round up from April.

April has been a month of learning, to understand what’s happening across the Creative Health sector, starting with evaluating the recent Creative Health Interest Meeting (CHIMe)  where we looked at Funding the Creative Health Sector. Information gathered in the discussions will feed into the new and exciting work of Norfolk & Suffolk – Creative Health Region – The first steps.

While the Integrated Care Board (ICB) continues its restructure, I’ve been checking in with colleagues to track their new roles both within and outside the ICB. As well as completing my monthly evaluation for the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) who jointly fund my role.

More learning for April, saw me attend the Building the Economic Case for Creative Health Mobilising Community Assets (MCA) to Tackle Health Inequalities Webinar. A very informative session, looking at how we can monetise the value of the Creative Health work being undertaken to feed into Government and policy decisions. Unlike other sectors, there is no sector specific guidance on valuing the impact of Creative Health.

Consequently, the benefits of culture and heritage are often undervalued or implicitly valued at zero. You can read more about what I learnt here.

More connecting, this time with colleagues from Suffolk Community Libraries, to discuss the Artists Intensive (which took place in March) and meeting wider members of the team, in preparation of Melissa Matthews departing her role as Cultural Programmes Manager, to take on the role of Programme Director for Ipswich’s new Creative People Places Programme – IP-Switched.

A large chunk of time was allocated to planning for Creativity & Wellbeing Week, including our 1st face to face Creative Health Interest Meeting (CHIMe) entirely focused on practitioner wellbeing, with facilitated session on avoiding burnout and managing wellbeing.

Open to ALL practitioners across Norfolk & Suffolk facilitating Creative Health activity regardless of sector. We invite you to join us for a morning of learning, community and a delicious lunch from the fantastic team at BakeHouse. Book your space as they are limited.

April’s Creative Health Newsletter was also distributed with the fantastic announcement of a new Norfolk & Suffolk Creative Health Region. Funding with a total project value of £1million, including £350,000 investment from Arts Council England will unlock 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 announcement. If you didn’t receive a copy of the newsletter then sign up to the mailing list here.

Finally, I was back out on the road again attending the Broads Heritage Partnership -The Future of Heritage in our Changing Climate. The workshop is a vital part of their mission to unlock significant external funding and develop an ambitious bid for Landscape Connections. By joining, my aim was to establish Creative Health into the foundation for long-term stewardship of the Broads.

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 about what I did during March 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 eco-system, 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.