Lewisham Thriving Communities

In 2022 Entelechy Arts coordinated a new project Thriving Communities, working on behalf of a consortium of culture and health organisations in Lewisham.

Between January – August 2022 we worked with 12 local cultural organisations, plus social prescribing and health teams in Lewisham. Together, we created and delivered a programme which through social prescribing, enabled residents of Lewisham aged 18+ to participate in new creative activities that are part of Lewisham Borough of Culture.

On Thursday 20th October 2022 we had an online sharing where we talked about the project, what worked, and what didn’t – and the learnings to take forward as social prescribing continues to develop as an important model of practice. Please scroll down to see the recording and read the evaluation report.

This project was funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund. For more information please click here.

What is Social Prescribing?

This is taken from the National Academy of Social Prescribing:

Many things affect our health and wellbeing – finances, social environment, what’s going on at home, to name a few. For example, people may visit their GP because they may be feeling stressed about their work, money, or because they are lonely and isolated. The impact that these issues can have on our physical and mental wellbeing has been particularly clear as the nation responds to COVID-19.

But these problems cannot be fixed by medicine, or doctors, alone.

That’s where social prescribing comes in. Social prescribing connects people to practical and emotional community support, through social prescribing link workers, who are based in GP practices and take referrals from all local agencies. Link workers have time to build trusting relationships, start with what matters to the person, create a shared plan and introduce people to community support.

Lewisham Thriving Communities: A sharing and discussion

 

During the event, Erica Hesket from the Poetry Translation Centre led a creative exercise where participants wrote a poem in just a few minutes – you can read this by clicking the button below.

Read the poem

Read the evaluation report

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