Grants helping to create a healthy culture

06 May, 2015

City Health Care Partnership Foundation, the charitable arm of health and care providers City Health Care Partnership CIC, has recently given out £20,000 in Culture Health+ grants to groups involved in arts based and creative activities.

As part of the run-up to City of Culture 2017, voluntary and community groups working in Hull or in other areas where CHCP CIC deliver services have been invited to apply for up to £5,000 a year for projects that will have a positive effect on the health of local people.

One of the recipients is Opera North, who are running an innovative music project to benefit children at Bude Park primary school in Bransholme. ‘The Opera North Singing School’ is teaching around 270 children the operatic skills of singing, expressive movement and dramatic performance, which have the potential to make lasting positive changes to their lives. As part of this project, Opera North are planning high quality music and movement activity for children aged 0-4 and their parents. The sessions will be led by a professional singer at Bransholme Children’s Centre. Opera North received £15,000 over three years to run these groups.

Jacqui Cameron, Education Director, Opera North, commented, "We are delighted to receive this extremely generous Culture Health+ grant for our ongoing work in Bransholme in partnership with Bude Park Primary School. The Opera North Singing School has only been running for a short time but is already having a tremendous impact, and we are very excited to be able to extend this to sessions for 0-4 year olds and their parents. 

”The sessions aim to introduce music, drama and movement at the very earliest stages of a child’s development to spark a life-long connection with the arts. They also provide the ideal environment in which adults and infants can bond through creative play.?"

Theatre company Silent Uproar Productions got a Culture Health+ grant for £4,000 to produce ‘Being depressed doesn’t mean you can’t laugh’, a new commission for a show that will create a talking point and engage the audience in the experience of people with depression. Alex Mitchell of Silent Uproar said, “This grant allowed us to facilitate the foundation of our new show, it would not have been possible for us to create this piece without it. We believe we will be able to create a platform for the vital discussion about those who suffer with mental health problems in an open and vibrant way, which we will believe will be able to have a positive impact because we honestly trust in the idea that talking about it does help.”

A grant of £1,640 to Freedom Road Creative Arts will fund a two-week project aimed at engaging with young people referred to the charity. Project co-ordinator Ian Bolton said, “Our main business is providing consistent weekly workshops and projects in Drama, Music and Dance to around 80 young people to help build the confidence and self-esteem needed to enable them to begin developing tangible and achievable aspirations for the future. 

“We receive regular new referrals to the charity who we need to place in the areas that will suit their interests and needs. Some young people access the charity because they have an interest in Music while others lean towards Drama; some do everything because it soon becomes that place where they feel safe and valued and it is their escape from sometimes turbulent lives. 

“This summer school will give us the time and space to develop trusting relationships with the new young people not only with new adults in their lives but also with their peers. Through creating agreed house rules and boundaries we will be able to ensure that they feel safe within their new environment and at the same time feel a sense of ownership. The aim of the Summer School is to use a variety of arts based workshops to create a performance that will be open to the wider public to access.”

City Health Care Partnership CIC’s director of social business and public relations, Denise Anderton, is also chair of the Foundation’s trustees. She said, “We are delighted to be able to offer these grants to groups who are doing such good work in using the arts to improve the health and wellbeing of local people in the run-up to Hull becoming City of Culture 2017. As a social business, investing in our communities is a vital part of our work and we’re very excited about the new opportunities that Culture Health+ will bring for local people.”