Helping mental health through creative workshops
In 2021, BCF awarded £4,214 to No 5 enabling them to run creative art workshops for local young people, as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations. The workshops gave young people the opportunity to open up and express themselves creatively in ways that they hadn’t done before.
No 5 provide free, confidential, professional counselling and outreach to young people aged 11-25 suffering mental distress in the Reading area. The service supports over 1,000 children a year, including counselling and outreach programmes in 7 local schools, and a peer to peer Young Ambassador scheme; supporting and training young people to deliver talks, workshops and events directly to their peers.
The young people involved told No5 that taking part in this project has allowed them to ‘be as creative as possible’ without the pressure of having to be ‘good’ at art. This helped them to open up and express themselves creatively in ways that they didn’t feel able to, or didn’t know how to, before. Confidence grew amongst the group, with young people saying that they really valued the opportunity to ‘get out the house’ and spend time with other young people that they wouldn’t otherwise meet. This was even more so the case in the young people who had expressed experiences of loneliness and isolation during the pandemic.
Young people expressed that the opportunity to be creative helped improve their overall mental health and wellbeing and decreased feelings of anxiety once the group was working together and felt connected.
The work created during the workshops was displayed for three months, over the summer of 2021, in the Community Cabinet at Reading Museum.
"'M really enjoyed the sessions and came out much happier. She had said that she even spoke to the facilitators which is a huge step for her as she is so shy.”
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