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Art for Health and CommunityEscape working across Warwickshire promoting:
Arts and health projectsArts and Health projects developed by Escape have provided a platform for the project to champion the benefits of using arts and creative activity to raise personal, social and work skills through delivering seminars delivering to people working in the Health sector. Nuneaton Arts & Health ProgrammeWorking in partnership with Cultural Consortium and Nottingham Trent University Escape Community Arts establish an Arts & Health Programme to support people with mental health issues. The programme targeted four Health Organisations in Nuneaton: General Hospital, Mental Health Day Centre, Wellbeing Station & Medical Centre with participants referred by the health staff. The individuals manifested mental health issues that varied in nature and degree. Each project was run by different artists supported by Link Coordinators. Escape developed activities for patients/clients within the security of familiar and safe environments. Four visual artists were asked to design participatory arts activities that challenged participants to explore their personal creativity, offering a range of choices and new skills to encourage them to engage in their own individual creative journeys. Work created in the pilots was exhibited as part of an ‘Arts Trail’ throughout community spaces in Nuneaton and open to the wider public. This offered participants an opportunity to experience the power of public acceptance and approval which further impacted on their confidence and self esteem. 
 During the pilots the levels of engagement and impact of the project on participants’ sense of well being was measured detailing the impacts of creative activities on people with long-term mental and physical health issues. Methods were qualitative - interviews with all involved and quantitative - a longitudinal study using validated questionnaire scales over the pilot phase. The decline in mental health symptoms and improvement in quality of life continued over all sessions. There was a correlation between the quality of the creative process and improvement in mental health. Almost all participants were highly engaged and wanted to participate on a regular basis. The pilot project participants were invited to attend weekly sessions in the centre of Nuneaton which are also open to the wider public and are being well attended. Escape also provided training for fourteen local artists to establish a skill base for future work in the Nuneaton Area enabling them to gain skills in working with vulnerable adults in the community, eight artists gained work on the programme. Click here to download a PDF of the evaluation doucment for Arts and Health Programme for Nuneaton 2010-2011. Nuneaton & BedworthProviding creative activity for people with mental health issues.
 AtherstoneProviding creative activity for people with Early Onset Alzheimer's.
 Four Acres Cafe ProjectEscape Community Art in Action working in the community to help people make a difference in their lives. Working with Four Acres staff and residents to create a Pub/ Café/ Shop within the residency as a stimulating, three dimensional, interactive environment for staff to engage elderly residents and their family members in stimulating daily activities. This prop to become a background for staff to change the environment from Pub to Shop, to Café, creating opportunities for residents with dementia to engage in practical life skills within a safe environment. 
Woodleigh Beeches Eating Disorder Unit of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust Pilot Arts ProjectA partnership project developed and funded by WCC County Arts Service with Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust and delivered via Escape Community Arts artist Julie de Bastion. Whilst working on ideas for “The Big Draw” this past October, artist, Julie de Bastion, designed a “story box” project to involve 3D drawing with wire and drawing through monoprinting. Finding by chance, a discarded batch of drawers whilst looking for boxes, they became inspirational in their use for the project, as well as lacing a comical thread through the ideas in the work itself due to the pun. Health inequalitiesEscape can undertake integrated work which delivers social outcomes for people with health and isolation issues, developing skills and signposting participants on to other qualifications. Building cohesion between different groupsThe organization has delivered inter-generational projects in areas of existing tension between different sections of the community, on behalf of South Warwickshire Housing Association. Escape has built an approach which delivers integration between different groups, with different abilities, and this underpins all our participatory programme. Healthy eatingEscape has experience of delivering creative healthy eating programmes in the community, establishing a legacy of understanding and capacity to maintain programmes in the community. The Grow, Cook and Eat project delivers on healthy eating awareness among socially disadvantaged groups. The project has a collaborative Soup recipe book and regular recipes as part of the Escape newsletter. 
Environmental awareness and sustainabilityEarth Watch for Eco Week at Stratford on Avon Civic Hall. Working with ten local schools using recycled materials to create a rain forest in the foyer of the Civic Hall. 
Escape: Community Art
in Action. |
