Accumulate Art Kits are Expanding!
With funding secured from The National Lottery Community Fund and Foundation for FutureLondon we have been able to expand our Accumulate Art Kit offering to homeless hostels right across the United Kingdom.
Train the Trainer Sessions
To accompany the kits we have also been able to introduce ‘Train the Trainer’ sessions. These sessions, which are held via Zoom, train support workers within the hostels so they can deliver their own creative workshops to their residents using the Accumulate Art Kits.
Our first ‘Train the Trainer’ session on Zoom
Our First Session
The first of these sessions was held in early March this year. Led by Claire Cheung and Emelie Helsen, this session included how to deliver a workshop to a group, getting everyone involved and therefore building the support workers confidence to lead their own workshops. We have had really positive feedback from this first session with the hostel support workers sharing their experiences and learning with and from each other!
With this training in mind, hostels then delivered their own workshops to residents. The brief for this Art Kit was to create a cover of a magazine called ‘Emotion’. ‘A magazine all about people and their feelings. The best covers are those that show a simple idea delivered in a bold and compelling way. Words and images will be combined to deliver your emotion.’ The artwork coming through is just incredible…..
Check out even more of these powerful artworks produced so far HERE on our Padlet page!
We have received the most wonderful and affirming feedback from Sharon, a hostel support worker at P3 charity, who delivered the “Emotion Magazine Cover” art kit activity to residents at her hostel.
“The benefits have been wonderful, this will have been influenced by the cleverly designed first project. The emotion magazine cover gave the clients an opportunity to explore their emotions and they all did this in different ways, it definitely turned into an art therapy session which the clients seemed to naturally turn it into and it was my pleasure to be part of the process. For one particular client this project has been a bit of a lifeline, it has given him something to anchor to. His mental health had been decreasing rapidly following a move to independent accommodation and his mental health was getting worse. He is very chaotic and it calmed him a little, gave him a focus to come back to and it has not just given him something positive to do but because I encouraged him to do happy as the emotion, whenever he picks up the project he thinks positively.
Another client picked an emotion he had felt in the past when he felt out of control and it was really useful for him to be able to explore this, as he was in a better place and he was able to process this from a distance, it then served as a reminder of the journey he has been on and how he has managed to overcome his emotions. It also reminded him of how important all the little things that he had done to ensure he continues to look after his emotional health.
Another client has just lost his mum and the art work gave him the opportunity to talk through these very difficult feelings, this client can be very heightened, but the calmness that came over him whilst he was deciding what to do and playing with ideas was incredible. He also had a lovely sense of achievement when he completed it.”
20 hostels are now taking part!
We are thrilled to have 20 hostels join us on this project, stretching far and wide from Cornwall to Kent! We are so happy this project can reach more people affected by homelessness find support and empowerment through the medium of creativity.
Our next session starts at the beginning of April working with our friends from Autograph and tutor Alejandra Carles-Tolra.
