In 2022 our core programmes in Calais, Folkestone, Paris, London and Bristol offered mental health and wellbeing support to more than 2,000 adults and unaccompanied young people displaced due to conflict, persecution, poverty and climate emergency. People who access our programmes have told us that sitting with others at The Community Table helps them feel less stressed, less isolated, and more grounded. Engaging in creative activity allows people, throughout the precarious process of seeking sanctuary, to access their imagination and be distracted from difficult thoughts. It allows them to share and preserve their skills, languages and histories, both cultural and personal. The Community Table helps them to cope better in the present and foster hope for the future.
IN ADDITION TO OUR CORE PROGRAMMES, members of the growing Art Refuge freelance team of artists and art therapists:
• began work in Bristol with Ukrainian families arriving on the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ resettlement scheme
• indirectly reached hundreds of children and families through our support project ‘The Community Table Nakivale’ in Nakivale refugee camp, Uganda
• delivered bespoke trainings for over 200 people, including for psychological therapists at South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM), theatre practitioners at Projekt Europa in Canterbury, volunteers for Médecins du Monde in Calais and Secours Catholique in Paris and Calais, and art therapists for the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) in response to the war in Ukraine
• held 6 iterations of The Community Table during Refugee Week on the theme of ‘healing’
• published two book chapters
• won an award for writing on The Community Table model
• collaborated on a successful film project with Young Roots
• took part in two research projects and one University-based collaboration
• devised an exhibition in Kent which linked to extending Bristol's network through our project HOST @artrefuge_host , which helped to launch the Bristol Refugee Festival
• delivered two workshops for From Displacement To Belonging, a conference for frontline professionals in Bristol
• reached thousands of people through our Instagram pages, Facebook and Twitter
• took on three arts therapies trainees
• sowed seeds for several new small-scale projects and partnerships for 2023, including a new pilot programme in Brighton in the new year.
We use our dynamic website and lively social media presence to share our work. Please continue to follow us, share posts, discuss the issues, and join us as we work towards a fairer world in 2023!
WITH THANKS AND BEST WISHES TO ALL OUR PARTNERS, COLLEAGUES AND SUPPORTERS, FROM EVERYONE AT ART REFUGE!