Crafting Connections
Gifting the priceless joy of creativity to children and families
Reflecting on a 5-year journey, the focus of which has been tackling unequal access to creative opportunities for children and young people, our Programme Manager for Networking & Partnerships, Louise Hesketh, celebrates the partnerships that made it possible.
It started as a creative response to an unfolding crisis
In the first months of the Covid-19 lockdown, Curious Minds was one of several partners delivering ‘creative care kits’ across Greater Manchester as part of Creative Care GMCA. In that period, over 28,000 packs were shared, facilitating young people who were isolated at home to engage in creative activities designed to improve mental wellbeing and develop a sense of connection with their communities.
The success of this initiative led Curious Minds to consider how it might be expanded to reach even more families. In June 2020 we harnessed ACE partnership investment funding (alongside match funding from several Local Authorities) to work directly with several Local Cultural Education Partnerships (LCEPs) in nine areas across North West England.
Together, we helped them deliver bespoke creative kits to children and young people and families most in need across Cumbria, Lancashire and Merseyside. Some LCEPs created bespoke resources with their cultural partners, which are still available to access – such as those curated by Culture Co-op in Lancaster and Morecambe.
By providing physical art materials to accompany activities, the LCEPs ensured that children and young people had no barriers to making and creating. Partners went out of their way to ensure their participants had all the tools and inspiration needed to set their imaginations free - from paper and felt tips, to glue sticks and collage materials, plus a few fun things (chocolate bars and rubber ducks, googly eyes and clay). This was particularly important as many children were in families with little money to spare, and often stressful or difficult situations.
“Our pack is a creative provocation for young people; a challenge to get creative in these uncertain times. To move forward with conviction, hope and excitement. To think about the world/ and life in a different way.”
Anthony Briggs, (then) Project Manager for the Culture Co-op
A Local Offer
LCEPs are made up of a wide range of organisations local to an area. These include schools, colleges and universities, museums, galleries, libraries, theatres, artists’ collectives, music hubs, local authorities, independent artists, health professionals, youth services, charities, education advisory teams and family support networks. As part of the creative packs programme, the LCEPs stretched their wings even further, contacting a range of support services and teams beyond their usual networks.
Through these partners, packs were targeted at children in receipt of free school meals, vulnerable families, refugees and asylum seekers, young carers, looked after children, SEND young people and Gypsy-Roma-traveller children. In this phase over 3,800 packs were delivered across the nine areas.
Thanks to our partnership with ACE, Curious Minds was also able to access an offer from The Reading Agency who were gifting 25,000 Summer Reading Challenge packs of books, stickers and posters to regional Bridge Organisations (organisations, such as Curious Minds, whose role was to connect the cultural end education sectors), to arrange their distribution. Edsential, a Cheshire-based CIC who offer a range of services to schools, had the capacity through their Holiday Activities & Food (HAF) summer programme to deliver across three local areas, so we could ensure that even more children and young people would benefit from the programme. Curious Minds also printed and shared resources for Arts Award Discover at Home, enabling 2,000 families to engage in this unique activity.
Working with Crafts Council
At the end of summer 2020, Crafts Council entered into partnership with the Bridge Organisations, fundraising very successfully through its ‘Let’s Craft’ campaign, and enabling Curious Minds to work with six of our LCEP partners to ensure the delivery of over 800 further packs across Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside. Crafts Council commissioned a resource sheet to support families with creative ideas, which were printed locally and shared with all delivery partners.
“Just wanted to thank you and your lovely Curious Minds colleagues for the fantastic craft packs. Our HAF children at Spinners Mill in Leigh were so pleased with them.
“I had feedback from a parent who said that her three girls had a lot of fun with their craft packs in the run up to Christmas. She said thank you so much!”
Lisa Johnson, Heart Communities CIC
Let’s Craft Phase 1 ran from June 2020 to May 2021 and was the Craft Council’s first public appeal.
In 2022, aware that many families were still struggling post-Covid, and with an emerging cost of living crisis beginning to bite, Crafts Council formed a successful partnership with Hobbycraft, who provided boxes of craft materials from their existing stock. Again, Curious Minds was able to partner with six local areas where we knew the socio-economic situation was most critical. Over three years, Phase 2 of the programme delivered 2,950 packs to children across the North West and Yorkshire.
In West Cumbria, Wigan and Halton, we worked with established LCEP partners, and they reached out to local grassroots organisations, enabling many HAF programmes and community organisations to share this gift with their children and families. In Ellesmere Port, we worked with Theatre Porto, who distributed boxes during their own summer programme, and via schools (to Pupil Premium students), a local foodbank, a community centre (which ran craft workshops alongside their pack delivery) and a nearby library.
"Our new partner - local library Hope Farm in Ellesmere Port - has been a real success as we were able to take these packs in and work with our new family groups in there."
Jess Egan-Simon, Producer, Theatre Porto
In Rotherham, we connected with Rotherham United Community Trust, whose enthusiastic Partnership & Development Manager ensured that, although distribution at festivals was halted by the terrible weather of summer 2023, all 480 boxes were shared with local charities, faith groups and community organisations working with families in need.
In Doncaster, Curious Minds partnered with the Family Hubs, who worked across their centres, the Early Help team, schools and foodbanks to distribute the final 560 packs that marked the conclusion of the programme.
Much more than a ‘nice to have’
Over 5 years, Curious Minds has had the privilege of working with several established LCEPs, and of bringing together new partnerships. They have, in turn, recruited and worked with dozens more schools, community organisations, arts spaces and charities, all focused on a common goal of sharing the priceless seed of creativity with children and families who need it most.
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7,473 Families receiving packs
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14 Hyper-local partnerships leveraged
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£44,067 equivalent funding deployed
The joy of being able to share this gift is writ large in the many comments and words of thanks we’ve received from our partners. We’ve heard many tales of the impact this programme has had but one stand-out story best sums up the life-changing value of this work:
A housing association told us of a child, living with their grandparent since their mum had gone to prison, who had been struggling to adjust. The child’s love of art and the box of materials brought grandparent and child together and proved to be “a catalyst for a change in behaviour”, with the child excited to share their new creations with housing association staff.
Curious to know more?
If you’re interested to read more about our work supporting and brokering impactful local partnerships to further creative and arts education, visit our LCEPs page.
Local Cultural Education Partnerships (LCEPs)
If you've got questions, you can get in touch using the contact details below.
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