Four community groups who want to use activities such as art and hypnotherapy to help improve the mental health of people living in inner cities have been given a boost after they won funding by taking part in an event supported by Derbyshire firm Lubrizol.
The projects – called Activity Box, Anxiety Box, Mindful Stitching and Super Troupers – are now one step closer to making a difference in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire after their organisers persuaded a panel of judges to give them a share of £1,000 during the Dragon’s Den-style event.
Held online last month and called DAN Soup, the event heard how all four groups plan to use a variety of methods to ease a range of issues which can lead to mental health, including social isolation, boredom, anxiety and low self-esteem.
In previous DAN Soup events, only one or two groups have picked up funding, but this time the judges decided that all four participants deserved funding, with each one walking away with a different amount.
Taking the lion’s share of the money on the night was Activity Box, which is run by Notts Creative, who are a group of young people in Nottingham who have previously been either finalists or winners of the city’s Young Creatives Awards.
The group won £500 to extend the Activity Box project, which involves delivering creative activity boxes to people aged between 13 and 24 through food banks in Clifton, Bilborough and Basford in Nottingham during July.
The boxes were created in response to the Covid pandemic and the lack of resources some young people have access to, with the organisers drawing on their personal experience of creativity as a way of getting through lockdown.
The group said that they wanted to use the boxes to address issues of loneliness and social isolation, and to give young people the chance to try something new.
Lucy Moult, who pitched the group’s idea to the judges, said: “I was feeling a little nervous as this was a new experience for me. The event took place online and felt really well organised. I was first to deliver my pitch and it was inspiring to hear the other pitches that followed.
“We’re feeling really happy to be able to continue our activity box project. It was nice to know that the audience were on board with our project and had an interest in our work.
“This was our first project as a group and it’s a great feeling to be able to carry this on. It was exciting to be amongst three other strong pitches!”
Notts Creatives will be distributing their activity boxes in July so that young people have access to creative resources over the summer holidays.
Anxiety Reset, meanwhile, won £200 in funding, which will help its organisers, Dani Bello and Nottingham hypnotherapist Samantha Culshaw-Robinson, run a free 12-week online course offering hypnotherapy and creative arts to young women aged between 16 and 30, with particular emphasis on targeting ethnic minority groups.
Dani, a creative arts practitioner who runs Bello Mind and Soul in Derby and works with organisations such as Derbyshire Mind and the Derby County Community Trust, the charitable arm of Derby County Football Club, said: “I have experienced anxiety myself and have found practising art to be extremely useful.
“The experience of pitching for one of the grants was initially nerve-wracking, but it felt good to be around like-minded people and it felt amazing that someone believed in our course. It’s amazing to know that we can now put it into practice and start our dream course.”
Mindful Stitching, which is run by Mary Broddle and plans to distribute sewing kits to long Covid sufferers in Nottingham, was given £150, as was Super Troupers, which is run by Alison Mitchell, who is also from the city and wants to run online immersive theatrical/musical sessions for families with children who have severe physical and learning disabilities.
Karen Clegg, who was representing Lubrizol on the judging panel, said: “There is no doubt that in the current climate any scheme that sets out to benefit people’s mental health is worthy of support, but we all felt that all four ideas had merit and that it was appropriate to break with tradition and grant them all funding.
“Part of that decision came because of the amount of money that was in the pot on the night, which is more than we’ve ever had before and a really welcome sign of how popular the DAN Soup even has become.
“We’re proud at Lubrizol to continue to support the event and delighted that such four worthy schemes have been given a platform to achieve their aims. We can’t wait to see the positive impact that they’ll all be making.”
