Creative writing for wellbeing project snapshot

Project title: Creative Writing for Wellbeing

Where and when the project happened
ASCEND, All Saints Church Centre, Gosforth Lane, South Oxhey, Watford, WD19 7AX.
April – May 2015

Describe your project briefly
A weekly creative writing group at ASCEND, a community charity in South Oxhey, a regeneration district with social deprivation issues. ASCEND’s work is all about moving people forward, challenging their perceived barriers to education and training; providing people with more choice and control over their lives.

What were the aims of your project?
To provide a safe, supportive space where people can enjoy the process of writing as both art and therapy. Group members are encouraged to develop their writing in whatever way they need to and to take responsibility for their own creative development and healing.

What happened as a result of your project?
The initial 6 week pilot project was a great success with positive feedback from the group and staff at the charity. I am now running a further 10 week course at ASCEND with 10 people in the group. We are visiting ASCEND’s community allotment project to gather inspiration for writing from Nature in this tranquil setting. Look out for more about this on the Dig Deep blog. http://ascenddigdeep.blogspot.co.uk
We are developing ways for participants to share and celebrate their writing including an online forum and arranging a reading with invited audience.

What evidence did you produce to show your project’s impact?
Participants in the pilot completed a questionnaire giving feedback on their experience.
A successful creative writing group can nurture creativity, improve literacy, develop compassion towards self and others and improve confidence and self awareness. Although these are difficult things to measure especially after only 6 weeks, it was clear to myself, the group and staff members that people had progressed and benefited from the course.
One member found the confidence to write an article for her local newspaper. Several wrote finished short stories and poems. Another recently commented, ‘This is the best thing I have ever done!’

What 2 tips would you offer to someone else running a similar project?
• Take care to create a flexible, compassionate space with safe boundaries.
• Become aware of group process and dynamics.

Your contact details to help people find more information
Judi Sissons
Tel: 07976 374206 Email: judi@thewritingspace.co.uk
www.thewritingspace.co.uk

If you have an Arts and Health project that you would like to share through Creative Hertfordshire, please go to http://www.creativehertfordshire.com/the-art-of-wellbeing/call-for-hertfordshire-arts-and-health-projects-to-showcase/

For more information visit http://www.thewritingspace.co.uk/