Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

The EKIN project is a digital platform that enables people residing in social or medico-social establishments and every voluntary citizen to establish a relation for sharing cultural and recreational moments and being involved in a solidary way. It is a platform that proposes three types of services on POCTEFA cross-border territory.
1. Shared cultural and recreational activities (e.g. a person or some people propose going together to a cultural or recreational activity to a person residing in a social establishment; an establishment that organizes a trip with some of its residents suggests to other establishment or available people to join).
2. Voluntary associative participation (e.g. an association is looking for participants or volunteers for their activities or events and wants to invite people living in social establishments).
3. Call for solidary projects (e.g. students have to create projects or develop initiatives for and with people residing in social establishments, organizations that are looking for stakeholders for the project).
EKIN is another way of creating inclusive solidarity, placing the well-being and the socialisation of everyone at the heart of a territorial experimentation.

The project has been thought to answer to needs of sanitarian and social taking over of populations suffering of visual disabilities in cross-border territories. In particular, users’ associations and project partners have underline two main problematics: the remoteness of people of visual tests programs and re-education services; the weak density of specialised services in rural mountain areas. The project has 6 objectives: 1) Bring an answer of proximity un a medical desert and allow the access to ophthalmologic cares. 2) Give the possibility to do an early ophthalmological test in order to avoid taking over costs, bigger on the long term. 3) Contribute to the well-being in remoted territories through the development of social and cultural activities. 4) Contribute to the maintenance of populations of all ages in cross-border territories. 5) Raising awareness of Public Health policy institutions on the importance of proximity services. 6) Purpose a model of decompartmentalized cooperation to a multidisciplinary health, social and environmental taking over based on WHO (World Health Organisation) recommendations and purpose a more economic model of intervention. The project also included events where cultural activities were used to work with visually impaired children, for example through music therapy, theater, dance, cinema, the creation of illustrated tactile books, etc. The goal of these activities was to allow kids to be in touch with the real world in order to help them clarify their knowledge and capacities of sensory perceptions, to see better, to feel better, to touch better, to hear better.

Theatres, cinemas, operas, art galleries, museums, community arts groups have been forced to close at short notice as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools were shut to most students, some have fully re-opened in Wales, many across Europe have a mixed approach with some year groups in full time and others a mix of F2F/online learning. This situation has left many young people stressed/concerned about their current and future lives. Many students have missed school for friendship and support from school staff and are now worried about catching up on their education. This has impacted negatively on their emotional wellbeing. This project is a partnership of 6 schools, 4 creative arts experts and 2 education support organisations carrying out the following activities:
- Creative Arts methodology within schools as one of the support mechanisms to improve students’ health & emotional wellbeing. This will be developed into an in-depth Research based impact evaluation review carried out with support from an independent researcher to produce a robust & dynamic impact evaluation report to drive policy development with policy influencers.
- Online workshops/modules developed by creative arts experts to upskill teaching professionals and stored as a digital repository on open access sites. A toolkit of resources/lessons/activities produced by teaching staff developed after attending the online modules to develop and deliver high quality creative arts lessons/activities in schools. The majority of students targeted are learning in a bilingual environment and to support their language acquisition skills we will create between teaching professionals, students and creative arts experts a LEXICON of EMOTIONAL WELLBEING, which will be one of the unique features of this project. This will be developed into a progression route strategy for 3–19-year-olds as part of each school’s Health & Wellbeing curriculum/policy.

The project "Culture and Health" was a three year Finsam project developed by Blekinge Competence Center in collaboration with the Blekinge Region, Blekinge County Education Association and all five municipalities in the county. The aim of the program was to help people with a psychiatric diagnosis and long-term mental disability and/or psychosocial problematic have an improved perceived health, increased participation and an improved or maintained ability to engage in working activities.

Dance to Health is a programme created and delivered by Aesop Arts and Society. Aesop is a charity that uses the arts to help solve a challenge society faces. Dance to Health is a nationwide pioneering community dance programme for older people. It combines evidence-based falls prevention principles with the creativity, expression and energy of dance. Dance to Health programme uses dance to help people improve or maintain their strength and balance. This is important to ensure they continue to get the most out of life. It also reduces pressure on their health system. Dance to Health was created to demonstrate that an arts intervention can address a major challenge. This prompted a key question: what ingredients must an art program have for it to be taken up by the health system and made available to every patient who could benefit?

Founder of Dance for Health and responsible for its method and courses is Anna Duberg. She combines the work of disseminating Dance for Health (companies), with innovation coaching and continued research There are a total of 600 trained Dance for Health instructors across the country in about 185 locations. The central expression in this method dance is "Come as you are". Regarding implementation, you could say "Start where you are". Dance for Health was named by Dagens Medici as "Innovator of the Year in Swedish healthcare" 2019. Dance for Health was developed with the support of the Social Impact Lab at Örebro University in 2017. It was formed in the form of a company and now the focus of the business is on offering instructor courses in the method and providing support in the implementation process and follow-up. Dancing for Health's key factors (joy of movement, resources, unpretentiousness and community) has proven valuable; it is an appreciated method that has been shown to strengthen the health on several levels in many participating young people. A group of about 12 participants meets twice a week for two semesters in a venue suitable for dancing. The group works with choreographies in various dance genres but also with relaxation techniques. The cultural school can be the partner that holds the courses. A study association can also have suitable premises and a trained instructor. To lead a group in Dansa without requirements, an instructor who is trained in the method is required A close collaboration with the student health or a youth clinic makes it easier, as they are the ones who have contact with the target group and can invite and motivate them to participate.

The project Laughter for everyone! of the HAHAHA Institute, which seeks to promote access to culture, art and citizenship for the elderly public in ILPIs and hospitals through artistic interventions, needed to reinvent itself during the Covid-19 pandemic. Such an encouraging work and of great relevance for a population already fragile and/or in a difficult time due to the onset of some disease needed to be rethought. For 8 years Instituto HAHAHA has been working bringing joy, laughter and providing a rich exchange of experiences between the actors involved in person in hospitals and ILPIs. The moment was of great challenge, but Instituto HAHAHA continues to bring joy, entertainment and culture to the elderly and in hospital, also in a virtual way. They provide this with the possibility of serving not only the elderly population, in some channels it is available to the entire population, helping to reduce the damage caused by social isolation and also social and health vulnerabilities.

Casa da Juventude in Tapada das Mercês is the target of an artistic intervention realized by the Coletivo Criatividades in an initiative that is part of the larger Community Intervention Project. The young people involved in the intervention have put all their dedication, energy and talent to offer the community of Tapada das Mercês their artistic vision of the world and their creative process can already be observed at Casa da Juventude. The Coletivo Criatividades is a group of artists that has come together with the objective of creating value, dynamism and social inclusion, in order to promote culture, education and sustainability. Coletivo Criatividades intends, through graffiti, to carry out interventions in the public space, mobilizing the young people of the community to deepen this art with them

Soy Loco por Ti Juquery is a festival of art and new media, free and open to the public, which proposes a cultural occupation of Complexo Hospitalar do Juquery, located in Franco da Rocha, São Paulo. In addition to workshops and conversation circles, the project also includes an artistic residency, which seeks to bring together different perspectives, languages ​​and artistic trajectories, crossed by the history of Juquery.
The festival, which made its debut in 2018, was created from the desire to reframe Juquery, recalling the fundamental role that art plays in its history due to the performance of the psychiatrist, art critic and musician from Paraíba. Osório Thaumaturgo César (1895-1979) at the institution, a pioneer in the use of art as a therapeutic tool in psychiatric treatment. The project also intends to contribute to the discussion about future plans for the use of its space by the population.

Urban Innovative Actions is an Initiative of the European Union to test innovative ideas and support urban authorities in their efforts to ensure sustainable urban development. It takes its roots in a strong commitment at European level to strengthen the urban dimension of EU policies. UIA contributes to the EU Urban Agenda and it is based on article 8 of ERDF. One of the 14 UIA topics is culture and cultural heritage. Under this topic, UIA acknowledges that cultural participation has a significant impact on residents’ quality of life, contributing to their well-being and their sense of belonging. The 5th UIA call for proposals invited urban authorities to propose community-based solutions in accessibility to and participation in culture and cultural heritage which can have a positive impact on growth and jobs, social cohesion and social inclusion. Most of the proposals submitted (105) proposed digital elements and tools to improve access and participation to culture and to increase social and physical well-being. The Commission has delegated the implementation of the Initiative to the Hauts-de-France French Region.