‘Feeling Good’ was a 3 year initiative funded from the Big Lottery Wellbeing Portfolio taking place in Walsall. The project was a partnership between Walsall Council (Creative Development Team and Sport and Leisure Development Services), NHS Walsall, NHS Walsall Community Health, Palfrey Community Association and WPH Counselling.

The project combined participatory workshops promoting positive messages around mental wellbeing, physical exercise and healthy eating. It particularly focused on targeting South Asian Women as this was a local priority for the project funding.

The creative arts element of Feeling Good was managed by the Creative Development Team and included working with young people from Joseph Leckie Community College, Bluecoat College for the Performing Arts, Walsall College, Proffitt Street Youth Club and the Aaina Centre. A series of creative sessions were developed according to the needs of each project group. They focused on raising awareness to positive mental health and wellbeing and signposting to local support services, as well as developing appropriate and accessible health awareness resources through consultation with children and young people.

Through direction by the projects health partners and NHS mental health leads, work has particularly focused on promoting the ‘5 ways to wellbeing’ as a simple and accessible way of exploring emotional health and talking about thoughts and feelings.

The 5 ways to wellbeing

The 5 ways to wellbeing is an initiative currently promoted by the Government. It is a set of five simple actions that can improve wellbeing in everyday life.

• Connect
• Keep Learning
• Be Active
• Give
• Take Notice

These have been developed by the New Economics Foundation and are based on scientific research

www.neweconomics.org/projects/five-ways-well-being

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Arts company The Cultural Sisters www.theculturalsisters.org.uk were commissioned to deliver creative wellbeing workshops in a variety of settings. Activities included a jewelry-making, batik/silk painting, banner making, carnival costume, portraits and Mandala prints.

Creative sessions explored a range of emotional health and wellbeing themes and focused on raising young people’s awareness to the ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’.The Cultural Sisters also led a consultation process with young people to create appropriate visual resources for use in education, youth and community settings.

Walsall Arts into Health through Staffordshire University – Arts and Health Artist Professional Development Programme (2010) commissioned a creative case study to undertaken to help capture the learning and impact of the ‘Feeling Good’ creative arts project. You can view the full report here*

 The Feeling Good Project celebration took place in October 2010 where participants could try out the ‘Feeling Good Mandala Resource.’ Jo Cox from Walsall Council Sports Development led the creation of a ‘human Mandala’ engaging the audience in physical activity based on the 5 ways to wellbeing.

From September 2010 to June 2011 the ‘Feeling Good’ Creative arts and sports model was rolled out to two Primary Schools in Walsall. This was part of the TAMHS (Targeted Mental Health in Schools Programme). Pupils from Years 1 and 2 at St John’s C of E and Castlefort Schools took part in a series of wellbeing sessions including creative sessions and physical activity.

Through evaluation feedback from a project focus group of young women from Aaina Centre all self reported an increase in their confidence, having an opportunity to be creative, and learning new skills. Through the creative sessions young people have been able to think about at express things that made them ‘feel good’ incorporating ‘the sunny weather…being more active… having friends’

 Evaluation also highlighted that young people benefited from engaging in new activities, meeting new people, working with arts workers,

 “I have enjoyed doing lots of new things and meeting new people. I would like Cultural Sisters to come back again or come to my school” Participant aged 18

 “I have learnt new skills (sewing) and we can target our other worries and relax have fun and enjoy ourselves”…”because the Cultural Sister (arts workers) are friendly it is easy to relax and they are really helpful” Participant aged 8

 “I want to do this again” Participant aged 7

 “I don’t want to stop…it has been fun!” Participant aged 8

 “I feel good!!. ‘Feeling Good’ has boosted my confidence. I wish they (Cultural Sisters) could come back again” Participant aged 9

 “Thanks, I really enjoyed all the activities”…”We loved having you here”

 I have really enjoyed …”making a kite because I could explore my creativity and my      colourful   imagination”

 ‘I was sooo stressed until I made the ‘feeling good’ felt models’

 The ‘Feeling Good’ project has had support from external consultants GHK to help plan evaluation processes to gather the impact the project is having on participants. Through the creative arts programme we have piloted a number of approaches to gather qualitative and quantative feedback to inform evaluation.

 Through planned sessions focus has been given on encouraging the young women to think about how they have felt emotionally over the last week as well at the start and end of each session, through using the ‘well being ladder’ as a tool for evaluation. Through the feedback collacted this information on average 80% expressed a postive increase in how they felt after participating in a creative session.

An evaluation cases study is currently being compiled through an artist commission undertaken by arts workers from Cultural Sisters as part of the 2010 Staffordshire University – Arts and Health Artist Professional Development Programme.

Walsall CDT Arts into Health contributed to the PRAXIS (Regional Network for Arts into Health) workshop around developing an evaluation toolkit for arts into health- Feeling Good evaluation processes were highlighted within this tool. For more information follow the link:

http://praxisartsandhealth.org.uk/blog/2010/02/arts-health-evaluation-toolkit/

A set of resources  have been developed and tested throughout the Feeling Good project. They focus on raising awareness to the ‘5 Ways to wellbeing’(*) and promoting positive mental health and wellbeing.  Resources include;

 The Feeling Good Mandala Set

Initially developed with a teenage audience in mind the Mandala set has proved to be an effective resource in a wide range of contexts including school based sessions for key stages 1-4 and supporting the SEAL curriculum (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning). It consists of  a set of rubber stamps and inks that can be used to create Mandala patterns. It has accompanying notes and worksheets.

For further information about the resource and how to buy one contact Rachel Parker at Walsall Council Creative Development Team T 01922 653114 or email parkerr@walsall.gov.uk

Feeling Good inspirational quotes Postcard Set Box

 The idea of creating wellbeing cards came from young people at Aaina and Bluecoat who took part in the creative sessions. They suggested a visual prompt that could be displayed to help young people remember the ‘Five ways’ and identify their own ways of looking after their emotional health and wellbeing. These can be used in the classroom to develop discussion and also in conjunction with the Mandala resource. The pack of wellbeing cards contains 25 cards, 5 of each way to wellbeing. On the reverse of each postcard is a positive message about health and wellbeing in a famous quote followed by a wellbeing tip from the young people who took part.

Hanaa Resources

As the Feeling Good sessions progresses The Cultural Sisters developed a variety of creative tools to help to engage with young people. Out of their creative sessions with young women, ‘Hanaa’ was born. Her name means ‘bliss’ and ‘happiness’ and she is a larger than life size textile figure representing the 5 ways to wellbeing in a visual way. The body is divided to represent the 5 ways as follows; Keep Learning was represented by the head – specifically the hair, Take Notice was represented by the whole face – reflecting how taking notice can involve sight, sound, taste and smell. Give was symbolised by a heart shape on the body, Connect was indicated by the arms and hands and Be Active was linked to the legs.

At the end of the project the Hanaa figure was used on a further set of wellbeing postcards and on a classroom wallchart.