5.3 Mobilising The Third Sector

A key finding from this research is that ‘the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) play a crucial role in opening pathways into participation in arts, cultural and everyday creativity.’ CTC has been working with many partners; their trusted position and expertise has been incredibly valuable: it is clear that they are lynchpins when it comes to initiating and supporting creativity within their communities, and also identifying who might benefit from being involved in creative activities. One of our partners from the inception of the project has been WECIL (West of England Centre for Inclusive Living). To the right is an extract from an interview with Lucie Martin-Jones, Head of Community Services at WECIL, on her thoughts about our partnership. You can read more of the interview here. CTC learnt a huge amount from all of our community partners and in turn they have expressed excitement about co-creation. Our findings indicate that collaborative design ‘supports the production of experiences that address things that matter to older adults in relation to their health and wellbeing.” Gabrielle Lobb from Wellspring has reflected on her own learning as a partner on the project: “I feel that that’s a confidence that we are gaining as well as an organisation, it’s not just being able to say to funders –“ this is the target, yes we’ve met it” but “this is a process and we’re being playful and exploratory and as we go we’re finding what works and we’re adapting to that and we’re listening to the community and we’re working responsively.”