In August 2022, young carers from Sutton took part in a music project with Create’s professional artist Fernando Machado. The project enabled the young carers to take a break from their caring responsibilities, have fun, learn new skills, build relationships and express themselves.
We spoke to one of these young carers, Anya (12), about her experience.
“Once we got to know each other I became my real self.”
Anya, a young carer
“I take care of my older brother who has special abilities. He is older than me but he acts like he’s three or five years old, so I have to do everything for him. Sometimes my parents help me, but mostly if they’re busy or they’re tired I have to do everything except for the cooking.
“A normal school holiday for me means being stuck in the house caring for my brother, not allowed to go out unless it’s in the garden.
“Taking part in the project was fun, because I haven’t had the chance to do anything fun during the summer holidays so far. Usually I only get the chance to do creative activities when I’m not looking after my brother.
Working Together
“During the project we made different types of music and we all worked together to make a song. We came up with lyrics and we worked on the music, before bringing it all together at the end. I enjoyed that we all came together and worked as a team instead of doing it one by one.
“The project taught me that there are many different types of music and many different ways to make it. I was nervous because I thought we were going to sing into a microphone, but when I realised we were singing with other people I felt calm. The project also showed me that I am good at playing guitar, after taking a one-year break.
“Fernando was really fun to talk to and get to know. When he made a mistake, he just apologised and tried again. At least he owned up to his mistakes, because sometimes people pretend to know things even when they don’t.
“The rest of the group were fun to work with too. Generally, when meeting new people, I’m very quiet and shy but once we got to know each other I became more like my real self. I enjoyed being creative with others. Sometimes I don’t really have a lot of ideas, but when you hear other people’s ideas it can bring thoughts to your mind.
“Having the chance to do creative things is important because you can express yourself in different ways.”
inspired:arts Sutton was funded by Project Spark and The Taylor Family Foundation.
Statement on the passing of Create Patron Ken Howard OBE RA
It is with great sadness that we announce that our Patron, Ken Howard OBE RA, died yesterday (11/09/22) with his wife Dora by his side.
Ken was a Patron since 2007, bringing incredible passion, commitment and inspiration to Create. He was supremely generous, donating paintings for us to auction, attended our events, and hosted an unforgettable fundraising event in his studio that gave a unique insight into his life, his work, his sense of humour and his passion for creativity. Ken again shared his thoughts on the importance of creativity with us a couple of years ago, which you can read in this piece. He will be very much missed.
Create expresses its deep regret on hearing of the death of Her Majesty The Queen.
Having a female monarch who has dedicated her life to public service has been hugely inspirational for me. And we will be forever grateful for the grants so generously awarded to Create by The Queen’s Trust between 2012 and 2016, which enabled us to impact the lives of hundreds of vulnerable children across the UK.
Our thoughts are with the Royal Family at this time.
Prisoners win four prestigious Koestler Arts awards
I am delighted to announce that prisoners who created artwork on Create projects in 2021/22 have won four prestigious Koestler Awards, including a most highly prized “Platinum”.
The prizes are awarded by Koestler Arts, a charity dedicated to awarding, exhibiting and selling artwork by prisoners, detainees and secure patients. The winning artwork came from two of our projects: Inside Change and My Dad’s In Prison.
Inside Change
Inside Change enables prisoners to explore financial literacy through radio drama. Working with our professional drama artist and sound engineer in a series of high-quality creative arts workshops, they write, perform and record a radio play centred around personal finance issues, helping them to develop their financial capability, which aids transition back into society on release. Each play is broadcast on National Prison Radio so that other prisoners can hear them.
Poor Man’s Fortune, a play written and recorded by prisoners last autumn under the guidance of our drama and sound artists, was given a top Platinum Radio Production Award by Koestler Arts, while another piece from the same project, Trap Xmas, was also commended by the judges.
My Dad’s In Prison
My Dad’s In Prison is our new innovative storytelling project that promotes understanding of having a parent in prison. Working under the guidance of our professional writer and visual artist, prisoners collaboratively devise a children’s book, which they illustrate using collage. This simply and sensitively explores having a parent in prison, promoting understanding and reassurance.
“I think the project has had an impact on us all. A lot of people haven’t shown it, because you go back to your pad at night and you reflect on everything. My children think I’m working away so for me, this book means a lot because when they grow up, I can actually sit and explain what we did and how we did it. It’s going to be easier for me to tell them about my time in prison.”
Kieran, My Dad’s In Prison participant
The Anthology that the prisoners created in November 2021, with the support of Create’s writer and visual artist was given a Silver Award, and the project itself secured a Bronze Award. I’m delighted to say you can scroll through the book below, and also listen to Create Patron Erwin James read a selection of the pieces.
At Create we are committed to giving prisoners a chance to express themselves creatively and be heard. By taking part in our projects, they build confidence and hope, reconnect with loved ones, and learn crucial new skills to help them when they are released. It is truly rewarding and inspiring to see their work recognised with these Koestler Awards; it’s the icing on the cake.
As ever, I am hugely grateful to the funders, artists and Create staff team for making these innovative projects possible, and to the prisons that welcome us through their doors.
Since 2020 we have run several creative arts projects with participants from Enfield Carers Centre, both online and in-venue. Here Carla Brain, Young Carers Project Manager in Enfield, talks about her work with young carers and our blossoming partnership.
Watch the video below or read the full interview.
Who are you and what do you do?
I manage the young carers project at Enfield Carers Centre. We support children aged between five and 18 who have some form of caring role. We go on lots of trips. We also have mentoring programmes and support meetings to help support them.
Carla Brain from Enfield Carers Centre
It’s hard getting carers to identify themselves. It’s been estimated that one in five children and young people are young carers. If you’ve been a carer for most of your life, you think that’s probably what everyone does and you don’t realise. It’s difficult to know at what point you’ve stopped being someone’s son or daughter or brother or sister, and you’ve started caring for them.
I used to care for a family member and I didn’t realise I was a carer. I was a carer as an adult rather than a young carer. I supported my great-aunt and I’ve always been really close to her. She lived in the next road to me while I was growing up, and I used to see her on a daily basis. She used to teach me how to sew.
Then I was at university and I came back home and she’d had a stroke and needed a bit of extra support. I kind of lived with her for a bit, and it was meant to be a temporary thing. And then suddenly, she was getting worried if I left her. So then I would be staying with her all the time and I just … you don’t realise how it slips into that.
I was so shocked that there were young carers. Trying to balance it with my PhD was difficult enough, but I didn’t have to go somewhere 9am ‘til 3.30pm every day. I wasn’t going to be getting in trouble with the educational and local authority if I didn’t attend school because I needed to attend meetings or appointments with her.
“What I love about Create is that you organise everything. It’s all meticulously planned.”
Carla Brain, Enfield Carers Centre
How did you hear about Create?
At the Carers Trust Conference in 2020 Nicky [Goulder, Create CEO] was speaking about opportunities for young carers and [the charity’s] creative activities. I emailed her the second she finished her presentation and said we’d definitely be interested. We set up a meeting and, as it happened, [Create] had a place available on an online activity just a few weeks later. We brought our young carers to that and we’ve attended quite a few Create activities since.
Initially they were online due to the pandemic and then we had some in person. We’ve actually decided with our activities that we like a combination of online and in-person because different young carers find that easier. For some of them, they can’t really leave the person they care for, or it’s too difficult for them to get there, so they prefer online activities. Others prefer face to face because they’d like to have a break from their caring role. Some come to both.
Participants from Enfield Carers Centre on a photography project
The Create staff are so dedicated. For our music workshop in April, we thought about contingencies in case anyone had COVID in advance, but unfortunately the artists and the Create staff all had it. Some of the Create staff were really unwell, but they were so desperate to organise the workshop that they found us another artist and other Create staff members to come and attend. So we still managed to have the workshop, which was absolutely fantastic.
We’ve got music, photography, jewellery making and drama all booked in and coming up.
What do you think about these projects? How do you feel about them?
Create workshops are absolutely fantastic. Everything gets planned out initially. You have a planning meeting and you can discuss everything. It saves so much time. We’re quite a small organisation and we spend a lot of our time doing one-to-one support with our young carers. And it’s so fantastic to be able to have these activities over the school holidays and sometimes in the evenings after school.
We don’t have a lot of time to plan those activities. We need to look at any medical conditions, dietary requirements, have whole registers, book places, organise transport, everything. And it takes so much time to do a simple trip. What I love about Create is that you organise everything. It’s all meticulously planned. We arrange for the children to get to the project, but once we’re there, a lot of the time our staff participate in the activities and we all have a fantastic time doing it.
“I love seeing the beaming smile on their faces when they go up to receive their certificate or they get a chance to show their family what they’ve been doing. They’re just so proud of themselves.”
Carla Brain, Enfield Carers Centre
It means so much to these young carers because they don’t get a lot of these opportunities. A lot of them are unable to attend after-school clubs, or clubs outside school, because of their caring role. So a lot of them have never tried some of these activities before, like music or pottery. And they love it.
Another thing I think is so fantastic with Create is the sharing ceremony: on the last day of the workshop, you have a sharing ceremony, so you can invite parents to attend. They share the work they’ve done and they get certificates. That means so much to our young carers, because a lot of them don’t receive certificates at school because their attendance or punctuality might not be great.
A participant on a photography project with Enfield Carers Centre
[I love seeing] the beaming smile on their faces when they go up to receive their certificate or they get a chance to show their family what they’ve been doing. They’re just so proud of themselves. So many of our young carers are really lacking confidence and it’s just incredible what they get out of Create workshops. They say that they’ve made new friends, they feel less alone, lots of different things like that. These workshops really do help.
One of our young carers looks after someone at home who’s quite ill and vulnerable to COVID. She’s been quite isolated. It’s been difficult for her to attend any activity. It was difficult for her to attend school. When a lot of children went back to school, she wasn’t able to, because it would just be so problematic if she brought the virus home. But when we had all these activities online, she loves coming to these Create ones because she can interact with other children. She’s making friends, she’s so creative. It makes such a difference because it’s a break from her caring role. It’s a chance to be creative and she can show the person she cares for what she’s created, which is just brilliant.
What does being creative mean to you?
It always lifts my mood. I think creative activities do that for people. Different things got different people through the pandemic. For instance, before the pandemic, my mum had been insisting to me for years that she cannot draw and that she’s terrible at art. Now she’s taken up watercolour painting. And they’re just incredible. Some people learnt a language or learned to play an instrument or people might have taken up watercolour painting for instance, or cookery. I think those things can get you through tough times.
Can you tell me what it’s like working with the Create team specifically?
All of the Create staff are absolutely fantastic. Very dedicated, very thorough. They’re all incredible.
We’ve worked with a number of different artists and they’ve all been absolutely brilliant. When they explain what they’re doing, they explain it in layman’s terms. You understand what they’re saying and you can ask them questions. They’re always happy to be really flexible. With young carers, sometimes someone might have an appointment or they might need to go to the hospital or something happens that delays them. But they’re always happy to take that into consideration.
Create staff are in contact with you the whole way through. They arrange the support meetings and talk you through everything. They always turn up when they say they will. They’re just so dedicated. Nicky, the CEO, is so passionate. Hearing her speak is why we got involved with Create in the first place.
What would you say to a carer service that was considering working with Create?
Definitely do it. There’s absolutely nothing to lose. You can speak to the staff about any questions you’ve got, any concerns you have. They are super flexible with anything that you need to speak to them about. So if it’s about punctuality, if it’s to do with numbers of attendees, if it’s about getting forms in … any of the concerns you might have, you can speak to them. They’re so flexible with it. And your young carers will get so much out of it. As will your staff: your staff will love it.
During 2022 we commissioned consultancy Partnership First to undertake an independent review of our work since our formation in 2003. We asked them to make Key Findings in relation to six areas:
● Vision, Organisation and Leadership ● Policies and Procedures ● Fundraising ● Partner Engagement and Impact ● Quality Assurance ● Social Value
Partnership First provides expert and independent advice, evaluations, and support to aid organisations in setting up and maintaining effective partnerships and project development across the creative arts sector.
Why do an evaluation?
The aim of this process was to assess our working practices to help us understand what we are doing well at Create and where there is room for improvement. Ultimately, we wanted to understand the impact that we’re having on our participants and the organisations that we partner with to deliver our programmes. This learning is incredibly valuable to us, and will be used to tighten up our processes and improve our project delivery.
In order to complete the review, Partnership First collated a range of evidence for analysis, including:
● A review of documentation held by Create or in the public domain ● A survey completed by a range of stakeholders, including our community partners, funders and artists ● Interviews with a range of stakeholders
We are incredibly grateful to everyone who took the time to respond to the surveys and take part in the interviews.
Meeting our aims
“Create has had a major impact on the lives of the participants, and beyond them to their families and their local communities.”
Partnership First evaluation report
The review delivered a strong set of results. It found that:
0%
of respondents said Create fully met or exceeded its aim to connect, empower and inspire participants
0%
of respondents said Create’s partnership working was either good or excellent
0%
of respondents said they rated Create’s project delivery as either good or excellent
0%
of funders rated Create’s impact as excellent or good
“With Create, it isn’t just something that is written down on a piece of paper – they mean it. Create delivers what it stands for.”
Alice Dias, Chief Executive, Lambeth Carers Hub
You can read the executive summary of the report below, or download the full report by clicking here or on the button below.
We are delighted to announce the publication of our 2021/22 Impact Report. The report, which can be read and downloaded here, contains data collected from our projects delivered between April 2021 and March 2022, including participant numbers, demographic information and results from our evaluations.
The report also contains stories and quotes from participants, partner organisations, artists, corporate partners and funders, as well as a fascinating interview with Antony Gormley and a foreword by Create’s new Trustee, composer/workshop facilitator Holly Khan.
Findings at a glance
Our figures for 2021/22
0
projects across the UK
0
creative arts workshops
0
marginalised participants
0
hours of contact
Create’s focus is on engaging the most marginalised participants in inspiring, sustainable arts programmes in areas where provision is poor and engagement in the arts is low. Of the participants we worked with in 2021/22
0%
participants entitled to free school meals (England average 20.8%)
0%
participants of colour
0%
participants who are disabled / have special educational needs
0%
participants aged 0-18 (21.5% aged 60+)
This is what our participants and community partners said about our projects in 2021/22:
creative:voices is Create’s multi-artform programme that enables adult carers to take a creative break from their caring responsibilities, build trusting relationships with their peers and develop communication skills, new interests and confidence.
From April to June 2022, carers from Manchester took part in six weeks of music workshops with our professional musician Holly Marland.
Adult carer Emily (25) told us about her experiences.
“Being creative can be done in any way, shape or form, so take a chance to do something you enjoy or something you’ve never done before.”
Emily (25), carer and Create participant
“I care for my mum. She’s got a visual impairment, which she’s had since she was a child. It’s slowly getting worse. So I’m just helping her as best I can.
“The responsibility has grown a bit. There might be times where I’ve had to cancel a plan because I’ve had to take her to an appointment, or I might have to go and meet her somewhere because it’s getting dark. It’s just wanting to make sure she’s alright. “It’s life, isn’t it. Sacrifices have had to be made. But then I am fortunate that I am able to go out and do a few things for myself, because some carers can’t even do that.”
Making masterpieces
“On this project we created pieces of music using a variety of instruments, whether it be drums, strings, keys. We’ve created beautiful masterpieces, all different styles and different interpretations.
“My brother’s got a keyboard, and my mum used to play the piano when she was younger. I just think it sounds really, really nice. I don’t know the technicality of all the keys and everything, but I’m here to learn. It’s been nice to advance a bit more on my skills. I just tried pressing keys to see what sounded good, and exploring the different sounds. The only way you’ll learn is by trying something, and keep trying until you find something you like.
“I’ve enjoyed everything about the project. I’ve enjoyed being with everybody and having great leaders – Holly [Create musician] and Andy [Wai Yin Welcome Centre volunteer] – and then hearing everybody coming together and creating different music. It’s just lovely. It’s gone so fast.
“Everybody has really come together and it’s nice spending time with everyone. And that’s what it’s all about, especially the last couple of years we’ve had, everybody being locked up and everything. It’s just nice to spend time with people and create music.
“Holly is lovely. She’s so welcoming and smiley. Seeing her smile makes me smile. She’s so engaging as well, you wanted to hear what she’s got to say. She’s helpful, because obviously she knows her music. She’s not like ‘Argh you’ve done it wrong’, she’s like ‘Why don’t you try it like this?’ It’s encouraging.”
Trying something new
“I’m quite a creative person anyway, but it’s nice to try something new. I’ve dabbled a bit with instruments, but not anything to this extent, so it’s been really nice to be creative in a way that I’ve not really done before. I’ve done dance since I was a child, too, and I do acting.
“What you create is beautiful. Being creative can be done in any way, shape or form, so take a chance to do something you enjoy or something you’ve never done before and explore something new and see if you like it. Then if you don’t like it you can say ‘I tried’.
“Everybody’s caring situation is very different, but just being able to have time with people who are in similar situations, just coming together and being there for one another … we’re all in the same boat. There are no judgements. When you’re with a group of carers it’s like everyone is understanding and I think that’s really important. It’s nice for carers to have that bit of time to do something new.”
Listen to the group’s performance on the final day of the project.
This project is funded by The Smiles Fund, awarding funds from Walkers and Comic Relief.
Throughout 2021/22, young carers from Lambeth worked with Create’s professional artists in a variety of artforms, including photography, poetry, ceramics, dance and visual art.
The projects, which were delivered in partnership with Lambeth Carers Hub, enabled the young carers to take a break from their caring responsibilities, have fun, learn new skills, build relationships and express themselves.
We spoke to one of these young carers, Faridah (12), and her mother Honey, about their experiences. (They were also filmed for Grayson’s Art Club, which you can read about here.)
“Being creative for me means that I get to express my feelings and my emotions through art, since I find explaining it difficult.”
Faridah (12), a Young carer
Honey – Faridah’s mother
“Naeemah, Faridah’s younger sister, was born prematurely. She stayed in hospital for eight-and-a-half months, and it changed everything. It took me away a lot from Faridah because I was at the hospital every day, sometimes for 12 hours a day. For Faridah, getting time with me would mean her coming to the hospital and being in the family waiting area or being by the bedside with the baby. That’s when I think I noticed a shift in her expression and communication. She became more closed off.
“Her sister is classed as vulnerable, so we had to do a lot of isolating during the pandemic, which meant that Faridah had to stay home and couldn’t go back into school when the lockdown was lifted. So it took a lot away from Faridah and her own personal time and personal space.
“Faridah is very selfless. She didn’t want to add any more pressure on me. And that’s a testament to how amazing Faridah is: she’s kind and loving and respectful. The older Naima’s getting, she’s becoming more dependent on Faridah, she wants to do everything her sister does. So the pressure has become a lot more on Faridah to help with her sister’s care.
“Joining this young carers group was amazing for Faridah because she was around other young people who had shared experiences, so it was easier for her to feel seen and heard. The Create projects started allowing her to come out of her shell: expressing herself through the arts, through photography, through songwriting. She’s anticipating the road to being 13, and she wrote a song called ‘The Road to 13’. Her experiences that she’s written into those songs, it’s very different to an everyday 12-year-old and their perspective on what being a teenager is going to look like because of all the responsibilities she’s had to adopt.
“We started noticing the transition when Faridah started the Create project – of her imagination expanding and being open to different types and forms of art.”
Honey, Faridah’s mother
“Faridah wouldn’t talk about her feelings, she would paint it on a picture or draw. We started noticing the transition when she started the Create project – of her imagination expanding and being open to different types and forms of art, and exploring different things she can use to create something amazing, things you wouldn’t normally think of. I’m really, really proud of her.”
Faridah
“Today me and my group of three made our own heroine called GirlBoss and we added loads of different decorations to her, like her outfit and her hair and her facial features. We were thinking of Michael Jackson mixed with the Suffragettes because GirlBoss is stylish and she’s good at dancing, and then her role in the world is to be another version of the Suffragettes.
Young carer Faridah and another young carer with their creation, GirlBoss
“Being creative for me means that I get to express my feelings and my emotions through art, since I find explaining it difficult. I like making art with different objects and I like drawing with a pencil and I like different types of shading. Sometimes when I’m at home I’ll copy different designs of bedrooms from cartoons I watch, so I’ll pause it when it gets to the kid’s mum’s bedroom and I’ll copy it to see how well I can draw in 3D.
“I like drawing because I don’t feel like I need a certain amount of time to draw, I can just keep drawing for as long as I want.
“Through the Create projects I’ve done things like making mini-sculptures of different things, like making my own time machine. It’s made me feel like I can express myself better in art instead of just drawing random things, so now I can make more things out of the cardboard my grandma might have or any pieces of paper I find around the house, I can make something out of it.
“Being a young carer has made me more patient with my sister because I understand that if she does something wrong I can’t just get mad at her.”
Our projects with Lambeth Carers Hub are ongoing. To support this work, please use the donation form below – or click here to give monthly.
In April 2022, young carers from Ealing and Hounslow took part in a three-day creative writing project with Create writer Bryony Littlefair.
The project enabled a group of young carers to take a break from their caring responsibilities, have fun, learn new skills, build relationships and express themselves. The project was delivered in partnership with Brentford FC Community Sports Trust as part of our inspired:arts programme.
We spoke to young carer Josh (10) about his time on the project.
“projects like this help young carers because they can express their feelings in writing. So they can talk about it, they have a free space to talk.”
Josh, a Young Carer
“I care for my brother because he’s disabled. He finds it hard to walk and whenever he falls over I help him up. I’ve been caring for him my whole life.
“I know a lot of kids at my school, all my friends, don’t have anything like this in their lives. So I can definitely tell a difference between us because they tell me about their life at school and it’s quite different.
“Maybe I’m a bit more protective than other people because I have someone to protect, I have someone to look after, and in other people’s lives they don’t really have that. Sometimes my schoolwork is affected a little bit because I mostly worry about him, wondering if he’s doing okay at his school. We go to separate schools.”
Exposing your feelings
“On the first day of the project we did free-writing, which is when you write whatever comes to your mind. So when you get stuck you just keep writing “I don’t know I don’t know blah blah blah” and then something will eventually come to your mind. I’ve learnt that it doesn’t really have to make sense, what you write. You can write whatever you want.
“I felt quite impressed with myself because I’ve written a few poems at school but nothing like the sort of poem I wrote here. Obviously, Bryony [Create artist] is a professional poet and she helped me on the first two days with the poetry of the subject. It was really good working with the rest of the group. It was fun.
“It felt good to get out of the house and work my brain over the holidays. I’ve learnt that I can express myself with writing rather than something else.
“I think projects like this help young carers because they can express their feelings in writing. So they can talk about it, they have a free space to talk. At our school you don’t have that much space to talk. Or you can’t really express that in your writing because in English lessons you have a task that you have to do, whereas on these sorts of projects you can write whatever you want and you can express yourself in different ways and expose your feelings.”
This project was funded by The Feathers Association and The Mercers’ Company.
