The impact that culture and the many activities associated with it can have on people and communities is central to everything that we do at Hampshire Cultural Trust. We run projects and programmes across Hampshire, working with communities and individuals, with the old and young, with the hard-to-reach and vulnerable.
On our Brighter Futures programme, we work in partnership with local health and community providers to support adults with mental health needs. Currently running in Aldershot, the programme delivers courses to aid adults in their recovery from mental health issues. Participants come to Brighter Futures through partners such as the North East Hants Recovery College and attend courses including Beginners Ukulele and Creative Crochet, which help them to grow their confidence, develop their emotional resilience and increase their socialisation.
She has attended every session and her confidence is soaring. Her relationships with her children have improved beyond recognition, she can sit down for the whole session now and has gradually started to sit with the group rather than on her own to the side. Her sense of humour has emerged and she understands her mental health difficulties better now and is learning skills to manage and is striving towards a meaningful life. Feedback from programme partner
Since beginning in September 2018, the programme has worked with 145 adults and five partners, delivered 25 courses and has also staged an exhibition of artwork produced by participants at Aldershot Military Museum, held at the end of the project’s first year in action.
A powerful piece of artwork created via our workshop with Hampshire Cultural Trust in Aldershot. I can't think of a more powerful way to illustrate the power of a self-limiting, negative belief system. Here's to using this as a means of exploring these with the creator and working towards replacing them with positivity. Feedback from programme partner
Brighter Futures is funded by Hampshire County Council’s Adult Community Learning programme, Hampshire Achieves.
If you have enjoyed Culture on Call and you are able to make a donation, any support you can give will help us keep people connected.