In September the 100% Digital Leeds Team will be curating a week long programme of events over digital apps such as Zoom and Teams that carers and staff working in care settings can access for the benefit and entertainment of their care recipients. Taking place from Monday 25 to Friday 29 September, the week will follow on from the National Day of Arts in Care Homes which this year is on Sunday 24 September. Care settings can include, but are not limited to care homes, day services, supported living services, recovery hubs, hospitals, and hospices.
We would like to encourage arts and cultural organisations to submit activities for inclusion in the programme by completing this expression of interest form by Friday 18 August. Arts organisations can also apply for a small bursary from our partners, Arts Together, to support this activity by completing this short application form.
Care providers can request support to access the programme by completing this this expression of interest form at any time until Friday 29 September.
“We enjoyed being part of a national celebration event and it gave us an opportunity to offer ’something extra’ outside of our programme. Also, it felt good to be a part of something bigger with an online presence.”
Artlink West Yorkshire, Arts in Care Digital Programme 2022
The programme was launched at the Arts in Care Showcase event that took place in May, aimed at care providers to highlight the wealth of arts and cultural activity taking place across Leeds that activity coordinators (and similar roles) could access within their settings.
Programme aims
The programme has been formed by a steering group of partners from a variety of sectors from health, culture, libraries and care and was a project that came out of the Arts and Culture Digital Inclusion Network. It aims to foster meaningful relationships between arts and cultural organisations and care settings, to give care staff the experience of hosting digital sessions within their space and to give arts and cultural organisations the opportunity to reach new audiences, work with new technology and for everyone to have a joyful and uplifting experience in the process! We hope that through this programme we can help to tackle some of the barriers to inclusion in arts activity faced by care recipients and staff, developing their digital skills and confidence.
‘Access to culture is a human right, as much in residential care as when living in the community. The benefits to health and wellbeing of participation in arts and culture, including in older age, are well established.’
Baring Foundation – Every Care Home a Creative Home, 2022
How to get involved: arts and cultural organisations
Our aim is to spread the call out for activity far and wide, to arts and cultural organisations, local community groups, charities, third sector organisations. If you’re interested in delivering a session as part of the week please complete this short expression of interest form to tell us about what you would like to do and to also give the opportunity to ask for support from 100% Digital Leeds. The form also includes a section that asks if your organisation is able to offer peer support if you feel that you have the resources, time and knowledge to help another organisation.
On the 28 June we held an informative webinar aimed at arts and cultural organisations to discuss more about how and why to engage with the programme. Speakers included 100% Digital Leeds, NAPA, The Performance Ensemble, RJC Dance and Leeds City Council’s Adults and Health team.
‘The arts and culture sector is uniquely placed to champion digital inclusion to bring in new audiences to engage with work digitally, to upskill those facing barriers to digital inclusion, and to demonstrate the benefits of being able to access provision digitally.’
Pam Johnson, Head of Culture Programmes, Leeds City Council
Support from 100% Digital Leeds
You may not have worked in digital, or delivered to an audience in care before, there are resources available to support. This project has been shaped by the Arts and Culture Digital Inclusion Network and the support of 100% Digital Leeds and network members is available for artists and arts and culture organisations looking to develop their digital offer or adapt their work to be accessible and engaging for different audiences. There is a section on the expression of interest form to request support and 100% Digital Leeds will contact you to have a conversation about what those needs are and how we can provide assistance.
There are also resources available around working with older participants like the Leeds Playhouse’s Creative Ageing Treasury of Leeds and the Baring Foundation’s Treasure of Arts Activities for Older People.
Funding Leeds is a database of funding opportunities both locally and nationally, once you have created an account and saved a search you will receive regular updates on your specific funding area of interests.
“It was good to be involved in a wider event which enabled us to market our provision and see who else are working in the sector. We would like to extend our zoom provision in the future and this gives us confidence that they is a demand to keep moving forward with our digital at home programme.”
Ascendance, Arts in Care Digital Programme 2022
Bursaries
Our partners, Arts Together, are this year dedicating their bursaries towards organisations and individuals delivering work as part of the programme. Four bursaries of £250 are available to support a piece of work for the programme. The bursary could go towards paying an artist for their time, buying resources for the session or facilitating partnership working. Please complete this Google form to apply.
How to get involved: care staff
100% Digital Leeds can offer help to your care setting, please complete this short expression of interest form if you would like us to get in touch with you to have a conversation about your support needs.
Our partners Leeds Inspired will curate a special page on the Leeds Inspired website dedicated to the programme which will enable all of the events to be looked at and booked on the same webpage. Our aim is to make the booking and access process as straightforward as possible to enable care settings to feel confident in the programme and in their ability to make it work in their setting.
Summary of key information
- The programme of activities will run from Monday 25 to Friday 29 September.
- The final programme will be announced towards the end of August.
- Arts and cultural organisations can submit their activities for inclusion in the programme by completing this form by Friday 18 August.
- Care providers can request support to access the programme by completing this form at any time until Friday 29 September.
- For more information about this project or how you can support contact Jennifer.rhodes@leeds.gov.uk.