OTHER MARGINALISED CHILDREN & ADULTS

Create also works with other groups of marginalised children and adults who may be excluded from accessing high-quality, professionally run creative arts activities. These include homeless people, young refugees and victims of domestic abuse.

The Need

According to the Mental Health Foundation, 80% of people struggling with homelessness report poor mental health. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing reported in 2017: “Art-making offers a temporary haven for people who have no home of their own; it offers time away from fear and intimidation; it offers scope to begin healing.”

Refugees and asylum seekers have reported that engagement with the arts following forced displacement supported them in creating new support networks and developing practical skills that were useful in finding work. Arts activities also decrease anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and peer problems for both child and adult refugees. (Source.)

Studies have also shown that participation in creative arts activities can help people process and work through traumatic experiences, such as domestic abuse, because they tap into traumatic memories on a sensory rather than verbal level. According to Scientific American, “researchers have argued that creative expression offers therapeutic benefits because they increase engagement and flow, catharsis, distraction, positive emotions, and meaning-making”.

Click below to read more about our creative arts projects with these participants.