Throughout 2022 and Awards for All grant from The National Lottery has been supporting over 200 people to attend various creative sessions, including a core group of around 12 volunteers who meet weekly.
“When I wake up and remember it’s a Horsebridge craft morning it gives me the same feeling as when it was fish and chip Friday at school”
Participant from our regular volunteer meeting.
Over the year of the project we have seen the impact of the creative volunteer sessions on those taking part. For some it is their only regular activity and a focus of their week, for others it provided a chance to support a local charity and other volunteers, with all the well-being benefits that brings. For all those taking part they had the opportunity to learn new skills, complete projects and be part of a productive and supportive group who contributed to the life of the centre and created merchandise for our Christmas Makers Market.
Participants gained the confidence to try new things and develop new skills that they felt they could not achieve at the beginning of the project. The sessions were fulfilled through a core group meeting fortnighly at first - now weekly - alongside free Studio Sessions places and Art Bank support sessions. It created an opportunity to develop friendships and a support network. There were many discussions of shared experiences of the hardships of the pandemic, support services, health and life.
Our Art Bank supported the initiative and enabled participants to take materials home with them to continue creating at home and bringing work back to sessions. The work has also led to some participants becoming volunteers for other activities at the centre.
The volunteers sessions are now embedded into our work, they are so important to those taking part and for us ensuring we can include the more vulnerable members of our community. It creates a pathway for people to get involved here and then continue on to be part of creative courses here. We will be setting up a Pay it Forward scheme to ensure that we can continue to offer free places on all our courses at the centre.
