Project title
Description of initiative
Since 2017 Horsens Healthy City have started annual cultural groups for citizens with vulnerabilities. Horsens Sund By has for many years used culture to promote citizens sense on community. Horsens Sund By work from a broad concept of health, where people's well-being and mental health are in focus and not just people's physical health and the absence of illness. The starting point is Horsens Sund By's 30-year membership of WHO's Healthy Cities Network. In relation to well-being and mental health, concepts such as meaningfulness and good social relations are at the center.
The target group has been adults outside the labor market. The meetings have been in the daytime on weekdays, twice a month. One meeting with focus on cultural experiences and activities/workshops such as guided reading, painting workshops, theatre and concerts, visits to museums etc. and one meeting with social networking over coffee and cake. Participants have typically been people with chronic disorders to a mild to moderate degree, people with limited networks and people with an openness to culture but not cultural consumers to a greater extent. Most participants have been 60+ and women. A fairly large proportion have been widows or relatives of a spouse with e.g. dementia. Some have had chronic disorders of a physical nature or disability. Some have had anxiety and depression to a moderate degree. A small group have been unemployed or on early retirement. And finally, a small group in general has had a limited social network. Some have been relatively resourceful broadly understood.
In the interviews with the participants before (and after) participation in the culture group (done by external evaluator), the importance of good social relations and meaningfulness for the experience of the participants' own well-being is emphasized: Security in the close communities, being seen and heard, etc. But meaningfulness is also important to them. For example, to be in motion, to be challenged, to develop, to experience. A general sense of well-being is also important, both physically and mentally.
Further information on the initiative
Themes: Culture and...
Keywords
Target group
Cultural field
Budget
Timeframe
Sources of funding
Results, benefits, impact and lessons learnt
The effect of participation in the cultural groups (over 10 month) must be seen in the light of the participants' vulnerability: The close relationships are challenged, for example when the spouse has dropped out / gets dementia, or when one is no longer in the labor market. Meaningfulness is challenged due to mental illness. And finally, the general feeling of well-being or surplus is low due to, for example, chronic illness.
The evaluations of the cultural groups generally show that there is an effect in several fields: a social effect, a meaningful or existential effect and finally also a greater experience of general well-being. In other words, greater and better well-being. Of course, the participants' challenges do not disappear due to the participation in the cultural groups, but they "grow around what is difficult", as the English author Iris Murdoch has written. In other words, a kind of greater robustness. In addition, there is also an effect in relation to changes in many of the participants' everyday lives that they expand their living space through new concrete action.