Our Projects > The HEart Matters Project

The HEart Matters project is for older people with mental health challenges living in Hastings and Eastbourne. 

We offer free online and in-person arts-based workshops with integrated peer support, delivered by Inclusive Arts Facilitators.

Started in 2021, HEart Matters has since delivered 64 online and in-person workshops for older people, and many individual peer support sessions.

The project provides all the necessary art materials, IT equipment if needed, training and support, to enable participants to connect and access our social online arts workshops.

It provides an opportunity for people to connect with new or forgotten skills, and meet others in their local communities, while being fully supported to engage.

Peer support also focuses on encouraging people to seek out other opportunities in their areas, whether educational, social, volunteering, or about accessing green spaces and the local coastline.

People don’t need to be ‘good’ at art. HEart Matters is about joining in, having fun, meeting others in a supported space and being accepted and valued for who you are.

The HEart Matters project has so far produced three online galleries of participants’ work and has supported participants to access opportunities such as Art and Creative writing courses, Open University courses, and in successfully obtaining small bursaries to develop their creative work.

The exhibition

The HEart Matters project has produced 3 online galleries of participants’ work and has supported participants to access, amongst others, opportunities such as Art and Creative writing courses, Open University and successfully obtaining small bursaries for creative work.

VISIT THE EXHIBITION

“These sessions and everyone have helped me through the hardest time in my life”.

“Beneficial for anyone suffering with mental health problems. Extremely productive and rewarding”.

“Thank you for telling me about the Sane Awards and the great news is that I have won an Award of £100. I am so thrilled about this and so proud.”

“I feel that the course is very innovative and holistic. It really is the way forward with help with mental health issues and generally in health so that the individual is encouraged to find resources within themselves to make their lives more fulfilling whilst being supported by peers”.

“The peer support was valuable. We had peer support during that time with a 1-1 every three weeks which gave us a chance to talk, not just about art but personal things that could be of help to us, point us somewhere we could go. It lifted my mood, it inspired me. We bantered with members of the group. We hoped to bring them out of their doomy, gloomy situations that sometimes they appeared to have as bad as me, if not worse”.

What next

The HEart Matters continues to evolve and is currently delivering a new pilot scheme, A Different View, a series of NHS funded, face-face photography and zine making workshops, working with adults with lived experience of bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and psychosis.

How to join

If you would like to refer yourself, make a referral to the HEart Matter project or find out more information, please contact:

Anthony Stevens
HEart Matters Project Coordinator
Email: a.stevens@recovery-partners.org.uk