STARTwork Restarts!

Rachel Jones
Sep 24, 2017
2 min read

Monday saw the beginning of the third STARTwork course with a brand new group of people.

This time around, we're running the course from The Make Space, our new studio space in Walkden Town Centre shopping centre. Being a visible presence in an everyday community setting has been a fantastic way to engage with people in Walkden by chatting about mental health and finding out what activities people want. We hope that being in a familiar place makes the studio and its activities more accessible.

Each STARTwork day is split into two- the morning is an information session focused on common barriers encountered by people with mental health problems when returning to employment; the afternoon is a creative art & craft session, which this time explores our experiences of living in towns and cities and involves printing and modelmaking.

Morning

The first session involved doing a few hands-on activities to explore goals for the course and look at what a suitable job might involve.

To develop personal goals, we engaged the right-hand side of the brain and drew them. Making goals visible can help them become more memorable and representing it creatively can lead to new ideas by loosening up our imaginations.

The ideal job is different for everyone. Things like our interests, experiences and values influence what might make a job a good match and give us an idea of what might suit us. To clarify these components, we did a few card-sort activities. The results can then be used when looking for jobs to work out if a job is likely to be beneficial for us. It is important we see that it is 'good' work that is healthy for us- work that is safe and satisfying.

Afternoon

Caroline Coates facilitated the first of the creative sessions and introduced the group to the theme, which this year is about the places we live. Most of the group live in Salford and Walkden, in urban areas. We know that our environment can impact on our health and the places we live can pose risks and also offer opportunities for good health eg spaces to meet up with others, places that can inspire us and activities that boost our health.

Caroline brought along some pictures of local landmarks for members to choose their lino print, a process which involves carving an outline in a piece of linoleum and using that to make multiple prints. There were some great interpretations of the theme: some members created prints of iconic buildings such as The Lowry, others focused on the patterns observed in urban areas and others looked at the wildlife and nature in unexpected places.

The creative sessions offer a chance for the group to experience the wellbeing benefits of the arts and to work together to produce a show of all the artwork- watch this (Make) Space for the exhibition at the end of October!