Calderdale Thriving Communities

  • Thriving Communities was a project funded by The National Academy for Social Prescribing and Arts Council England.

    The Thriving Communities Fund was created to support local projects to bring together place-based partnerships to improve and increase the range and reach of available social prescribing community activities – especially for those people most impacted by COVID-19 and health inequalities.

    Calderdale Thriving Communities is a cross sector, place based partnership that came together to enhance health and wellbeing in the community, established in March 2021.

    The project is took place between March 2021 and August 2022 with legacy projects running over the next three years.

    Calderdale’s Thriving Communities partnership has come together to develop and map ‘Thriving Pathways’ between people, organisations, services and activities and in doing so create a ‘Living Database’ of community mental health and wellbeing provision developed by and for its communities.

    The project was led by Artworks, The Everybody School of Art and a core partnership of cultural, voluntary and health sector organisations including; South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Active Calderdale, The Victoria Theatre, Verd de gris, Staying Well, Halifax Opportunities Trust, Public Health and Cultural Services, Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council, Community Foundation for Calderdale, Creative Minds and Calderdale Recovery College.

  • Artworks, the lead organisation has been using art to improve people's mental health and wellbeing for over 14 years. Our work supports both adult and children and adolescent mental health service users, is a proven and cost effective route to mental health recovery and runs year-on-year with the support of funding and delivery partners from the third, public and private sector.

    Calderdale Thriving Communities core partnership spans across a range of sectors including cultural organisations, health and care agencies and social prescribing link workers and presents a wide and rich range of experience, expertise, offers and services.

    As a partnership we are committed to supporting the communities most impacted by COVID-19 and wider health inequalities. Together we have the knowledge, contacts and expertise to bring together appropriate local partnerships and undertake community consultation to develop the social prescribing offer in Calderdale and make it more sustainable.

    Social Prescribing Link Workers, Link Workers from Staying Well and Primary Care Trusts and Networks and were involved in the project and connected to both Thriving Pathways and the Living Database models via co-production, consultation and commissioning processes.

    The partnership has been formed out of mutual interest and investment in strengthening the social prescribing offer for people in Calderdale. Each partner recognised the opportunity this project presented and committed to support the achievement of its aims. All aspects of this project were designed not only with the partnership referenced above - but through interviews and consultation with SPLWs, community-led consultation in communities most affected by the pandemic and those with lived experience of mental health.

  • Social Prescribing is a way to support people with a wide range of social, emotional or practical needs to improve their mental health and physical wellbeing. 

    Social prescribing enables GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services to support their health and wellbeing.

    Q. Who is social prescribing for?

    Social prescribing works for a wide range of people, including people:

    with one or more long-term conditions

    who need support with their mental health

    who are lonely or isolated

    who have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing.

    Q. Who are Social Prescribing and Staying Well Link Workers?

    Social prescribing and Staying Well link workers connect people to wider community support which can help improve their health and wellbeing, reduce loneliness and isolation and to engage and deal with some of their underlying causes of ill health.

    Link workers give people time, focusing on ‘what matters to me’ and taking a holistic approach to people’s health and wellbeing. They connect people to community groups and statutory services for practical and emotional support.

    Q. How do people access Social Prescribing? 

    In Calderdale people can access social prescribing via;

    A Social Prescribing Link Worker based at GP surgeries 

    A Staying Well Link Worker operating in your area via Halifax Opportunities Trust Staying Well Programme

  • Activities delivered through the project partnership include:

    Commissioned Staying Well to deliver a public insights gathering report and infographics capturing community voices and opinions on:

    • the importance of creativity

    • how creativity links to health

    • where creativity sits in community provision

    Delivered a Creativity and Health Panel Discussion with Q&A

    Commissioned report by a group of MSc students at Huddersfield University Business School on the topic of how to make social prescribing and our partnership more sustainable over time.

    Delivered a public event to promote mobility and wellness and signpost social prescribing.

    Established Calderdale’s first Creativity for Wellbeing Network that meets monthly for action learning, training, signposting and networking to establish a ‘community of practice for creative wellbeing’, now with 47 members and programmed for 2022-2023.

    Created and shared content for Couch to Creativity style NHS App called Create and Bloom. App prototype launched and in test phase.

    Provided Micro Commissions for social prescribing activity delivered in North and Central Halifax.

    Created a Social Prescribing Directory of Services, WOWCalderdale, a ‘What's on for Wellbeing’ website promoting 50 social prescribing offers and services in Calderdale.

    Funded 10 organisations to create Welcome + Taster Session Film Clips to promote their Social Prescribing activity to the public, social prescribers and link workers via WOWCalderdale website.

    Delivered artist led community visioning project called DIY Utopia.

    Made funding available for 8 organisations from different sectors or disciplines to come together and develop a feasibility study for a new social prescribing project.

    Created 2 resources; ‘Developing accessible and inclusive sessions’ and ‘ Reaching your audience’ to support organisations looking to develop and or deliver new social prescribing activity in Calderdale.

    Commissioned 3 Social Prescribing Case Studies featuring beneficiaries and social prescribers explaining Social Prescribing and highlighting the unique journeys to wellbeing taken by people through non clinical settings.

    Established fund with NHS SWYFPT Arts & Health Programme & Creative Minds to support existing and develop new cultural social prescribing activity

    Explored and mapped data sharing relationships between partners towards establishing a framework to measure impact consistently across services and sectors.