Cllr Charlotte Holloway Supports Art Group

This week we were delighted to receive a community grant from Charlotte Holloway, Labour councillor for Drake ward, (North Hill, Greenbank, Mutley and surrounds.) This funding will help us to continue our weekly mindful art group at Moments Café, in the centre of Plymouth. Plymouth councillors each have an annual grant allocation to assist not for profit groups and organisations in the city.

Moments Café is a social enterprise based in New George Street. It offers a safe environment for people to meet, eat and socialise and all of their profits go towards Memory Matters, supporting local people living with dementia.

Our Friday afternoon group meets upstairs in the Arthur Read room, and offers a place to connect, chat, practice mindfulness and do a simple art project. All art materials are provided and the group has two facilitators. Anyone is welcome to attend, and the session boosts mental health and reduces social isolation.

This is a very popular group so we ask people to book a place here: Mindful Art at Moments (If you find you are no longer able to attend please cancel your booking so that your place can be offered to somebody else.)

We would like to express our warmest wishes and thanks to Charlotte Holloway for her ongoing support of our work in Drake ward. Mindful Art Club cannot survive without charitable donations. Click here if you are in a position to donate.

Supported Art Activities

Mindful Art Supported Activities start Thursday 13th October 2022

Mindful Art Club has been providing peer support groups in the Plymouth community for three years. Prior to this Peggy and Emma have many years of experience supporting vulnerable clients in residential addiction treatments centres.

We are now launching a new weekly group exclusively for clients with learning, physical and sensory disabilities, or mental health difficulties. We invite clients to attend, with their support workers, and enjoy five minutes of simple guided mindfulness, followed by an art activity. Art projects may include drawing, collage making or decorating painted stones. During the group clients and support workers are encouraged to relax and chat while making art.

Our friendly, relaxed groups boost mental health and reduce social isolation.

Session includes:

A check in to say how you are feeling
Five minutes guided mindfulness
Art activity
Coffee or tea
All art materials
A check out to share how you feel at the end of the group.

Costing and Access

Each session lasts and hour and a half, and includes a coffee or tea, and all art materials.

Cost: £15.00 per session.

Places are limited so we ask participants to book in advance.

Reserve your place now.

We look forward to seeing you at Mindful Art Club!

Thursdays 2.30pm – 4.00pm

Rees Centre Wellbeing Hub

Mudge Way, Plympton, Plymouth, Devon, PL7 2PS

Accessibility

Ramped/Sloped Access, and Manual Doors

Off-Site Parking nearby.

Plympton: Supported Art Sessions

We are pleased to be offering a new Mindful Art Club, specifically for clients with learning, physical and sensory disabilities to attend with an individual support worker.

The Rees Centre Wellbeing Hub is located in the centre of Plympton, is a short walk from the Ridgeway and close to the Plympton Health Centre.

Our two facilitators offer an hour and a half mindful art session on Thursday afternoons. We begin with a “check-in”. This is a chance for each participant to briefly say how they are feeling, although there is no obligation to talk if you don’t want to. This is followed by five minutes of guided mindfulness, where we focus on relaxing in the present moment. We then try mindful drawing, which is drawing with our eyes closed, for five minutes! This allows us to focus on the feeling of the pen against the paper, instead of aiming for any specific artistic result. The majority of the session is then spent on a simple art project such as drawing with felt tip pens, or making a collage. This is an opportunity to chat and relax. At the end of the session each participant gets a chance to talk about their art work and say how they are feeling.

The session facilitators, Peggy and Emma, both have current DBS certificates, and have had training in safeguarding vulnerable adults. They have extensive experience of working with vulnerable people; specifically those who have experienced substance misuse, mental health issues, time in prison, homelessness, and domestic abuse. They have also worked in residential care homes for adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and autism/ASD.

Mindful Art Club improves mental health and reduces social isolation. Participants leave our groups describing a warm, supportive feeling. There is always a lot of laughter in the sessions.

We are unable to offer one to one support in these groups, but instead invite each client to bring their own support worker.

Costing and Access

Each session lasts and hour and a half, and includes a coffee or tea, and all art materials.

Cost: £15.00 per session.

Places are limited so we ask participants to book in advance.

Reserve your place now.

We look forward to seeing you at Mindful Art Club!

Thursdays 2.30pm – 4.00pm

Rees Centre Wellbeing Hub

Mudge Way, Plympton, Plymouth, Devon, PL7 2PS

Accessibility

Ramped/Sloped Access, and Manual Doors

Off-Site Parking nearby.

National Lottery Funds Plympton Group

We are pleased to have been awarded National Lottery funding to run Mindful Art Club for six more months at the London Inn in Plympton.

Our mission is to improve social connection and mental health in a fun, creative way. Each session lasts for an hour and a half and offers peer support, guided mindfulness, a mindful drawing exercise and a simple art project that anyone can do. This is a project that we are already running and is making a big difference to the people that come. People leave our groups describing a warm, supportive feeling and say they feel validated, listened to, relaxed, happier and calmer. The people who will benefit are those suffering from social isolation and mental health issues.

We think of this as a long-term project as we can see from our feedback how much this group is helping people. One participant writes “Finally! A place where you can truly be yourself, be heard and supported. I feel so included and seen and it has given me real confidence in life. I love the creativity, the chats, the laughs and just this feeling I am totally welcome. I really look forward to Thursdays”.

We constantly evaluate our groups by using feedback forms, case studies, verbal discussions and testimonials to find out what’s working well, and any changes we should make. We have even partnered with Plymouth University to write a report to measure our impact on our participants’ mental health.

The London Inn art group takes place every Thursday at midday, where Simon the landlord kindly offers us a space free of charge. Art club participants are expected to buy refreshments at the pub while enjoying the art group.

The London Inn, 8 Church Road, Plympton, PL7 1NH.

We are grateful to The National Lottery and it’s players for supporting this ongoing art group.

Cllr Chaz Singh Supports Art Group

This week we had a great meeting with hardworking Independent Councillor Chaz Singh, Drake ward, who has awarded us some funding to help us continue our weekly mindful art group at Moments Café, in the centre of Plymouth. Plymouth councillors each have an annual grant allocation to assist not for profit groups and organisations in the city.

We are meeting 1.00pm this Friday 5th August, then taking three weeks holiday, and returning on 2nd September. This is a very popular group so we ask people to book a place here: Mindful Art at Moments (If you find you are no longer able to attend please cancel your booking so that your place can be offered to somebody else.)

We would like to express our warmest wishes and thanks to Councillor Chaz Singh for his ongoing support of our work in Drake ward.

Summer Timetable 2022

HOLIDAYS: There is no Mindful Art Club from Monday 8th August until Friday 19th August.

These are the free sessions we are running in August, when we are not on holiday:

Monday 1st and 22nd, 1pm Sunflower Women’s Centre. Booking essential.
Thursday 4th, 25th, 12.00pm The London Inn, Plympton. No need to book.
Friday 5th, 1pm Moments Cafe, New George Street. Booking essential.

These groups are free thanks to our funders and partners; Trevi Sparks Fund, Livewell Foundation, The London Inn, and Moments Cafe and Memory Matters Hub. All groups will be back up and running as normal on 1st September.

New: Recovery Art Club

Has your drinking started to worry you?

Is using drugs causing problems in your life?

Are you already in recovery but want to connect with others?

Recovery Art Club is a free, weekly group at Moments Cafe in Plymouth city centre. The group is upstairs in the Arthur Read room and will be running for six months.

Starts: Tuesday 6th September 2022, 1.30pm – 3.00pm

Moments Café, 69a New George Street, Plymouth, PL1 1RJ

Even if you can’t decide whether you have a problem or not, you are welcome to come along. There is no art experience required! Friendly and informal. Just grab a coffee and join in.

Connect with others and discover new ways of practising self-care through easy art and mindfulness exercises. Practice being here in the present moment, and accept where you are right now, without self-judgement. We will also be inviting some inspiring guest speakers to these groups, to talk about addiction and recovery.

The group is hosted by Emma Sprawson and Peggy Melmoth. They are the founders of Mindful Art Club, and have a background of working for many years in addiction treatment centres in Plymouth.

Places are free thanks to funding from an OPCC Community Grant from Devon Community Foundation, but booking is essential as we expect this group to be popular.

Mindful Art Session

We start with a brief chat about how everyone is feeling, then a short guided mindfulness session, followed by a simple art activity that anyone can do. Our mission is to make mindfulness more fun! We’re not teaching art techniques, we’re just here to play.

Places are limited, so if you cannot attend please let us know and we can offer your place to someone else. Book now.

Not ready for this group yet? Join our mailing list to hear about other free events.

Livewell Fund Boosts Mental Health

Thanks to Livewell funding we have been running a Mindful Art Club in Plympton for three months.

We share images on our Facebook page each week, to show how the group is going. (We secure written permission from our service users before posting pictures to social media.)

“Finally! A place where you can truly be yourself, be heard and supported. I feel so included and seen and it has given me real confidence in life. I love the creativity, the chats, the laughs and just this feeling I am totally welcome. I really look forward to Thursday mornings”.
Plympton group participant

Our aim is to improve people’s wellbeing and mental health and reduce social isolation. We give people a space to share their feelings, learn different mindfulness techniques for self-care, be creative in a group, relax and chat. We supply all art materials and suggest a different art project each week.

“I really enjoy the mindful group. Meeting lovely likeminded people who don’t judge you. This group is helping me a lot.”
Plympton group participant

Since the project started in April we have served 14 beneficiaries, who attend regularly. We have hosted a group every week, except for the Jubilee bank holiday Thursday.

“The mindful body scan and tongue drum really helped me focus on my breathing and my body. It really relaxed me and made me feel calmer.”
Plympton group participant

We have collected written and verbal feedback to measure how we have reduced social isolation, built self-esteem, and improved mental health. We collect comments in a comments and suggestion book.

We also evaluated our client’s wellbeing at the beginning of the project using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS).

Si Parnham works for Heads Count at Colebrook SW, a user led network for people who access mental health services, carers and everyone with experience of or affected by mental health matters in and around the city of Plymouth. Visiting our Plympton group he said,

“A room full of joy, and people feeling safe and comfortable to talk about how their lives are. Really worthwhile visit and an excellent community lead group.”
Si Parnham, Heads Count

Join us on Thursdays at 11.00am at The London Inn, Church Road, Plympton.

Unique Offer For Your Service Users

Do you manage a team?

Do you offer a support service?

Are you interested in reducing stress and boosting mental health?

You’re going to love our six week course!

Doodle Your Recovery is a six week mindful art course that boosts mental health and reduces social isolation, or bonds existing teams together. The offer includes two facilitators and all art materials. We have previously provided this course to organisations such as Devon Recovery Learning Community, Devon Mind, Positive People Pluss and The Sunflower Women’s Centre.

After the lockdown I felt very isolated and found it difficult to relate to others. Coming to Mindful Art Club has helped me feel reconnected with others.
Course participant

Or read more: Doodle Your Recovery

New Location: Plympton

We are delighted to announce a new partnership with The London Inn, Plympton. This sixteenth century pub offers live music, a beer garden in summer and cosy real fires in the winter.

Learn to practice mindfulness and art for self-care at The London Inn in Plympton St Maurice, starting Thursday 7th July 2022. Each session includes five minutes of guided mindfulness, five minutes of mindful drawing, a simple art project, and the opportunity to chat and relax.

Come along and grab a coffee or tea, and a cake. The group starts at 12.00pm and lasts for an hour and a half. We currently have charitable funding from The Livewell Foundation to make this group free to participants.

(Update, July 2023: We do not currently have charitable funding for this group, so it is now offered to the community as a voluntary service.)

This weekly art group gives people the opportunity to share their feelings, practice mindfulness, create art, relax and chat. Mindful Art Club:

Improves mental health
Improves social connection
Teaches new skills (relaxation exercises and art for self care).

Send us a message now to book your place in this friendly, fun new group.

Find us at:

The London Inn, 8 Church Road, Plymouth, PL7 1NH.

Due to the age of this historic building the lounge bar and toilets are not accessible to wheelchair users. (However, some wheelchairs are able to access the public bar area.) As an alternative we offer a number of other art groups in Plymouth and online.

Please contact The London Inn if you have any accessibility enquiries.

There is on street parking in George Lane and the nearest bus route is 21A. Alight at Longcause.

Tag: Weekly Sessions