Wellness Warriors began life in 2021 as a 6 week, remote, online arts project supporting the emotional wellbeing of children from ethnic minorities and/or low-income families.

Due to the success of the project, 2023 saw us further develop and expand Wellness Warriors so that it could have greater impact. It is now a 12 week project, delivered onsite in schools.

PROJECT AIMS

Wellness Warriors aims to create a safe space for children to come together, share, be listened to, and support each other. Using the arts to empower them to develop self-care practices during lockdown.

With the ability to be delivered either in person or online, Wellness Warriors enables Arts Bridge to explore a different way to work with our communities in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, continuing the charity’s emphasis on—and tradition of— working in a practical way within the community.

SELF-CARE TOOLKITS

Wellness Warriors sees participants engage in creative, fun activities designed to help them develop their emotional vocabulary and create their own ‘self-care toolkits’ - activities and techniques they can use whenever they feel sad or anxious which will help them return to a place of calm and contentment. 

EMPOWERING CHILDREN

Wellness Warriors is participant-led, from its early developmental stages right through to the delivery of the project’s weekly sessions, reflecting the charity’s belief in collaborative artistic practices between participant and practitioner.

Pre-project focus groups were key in helping us create the initial format and continue to be a crucial element of the project. The focus groups offer us the opportunity to ascertain what the participants (ie the children) are currently thinking and feeling - especially in relation to the pandemic and the cost of living crisis - and, most importantly, what they need.

As well as Arts Bridge Practitioners, we worked with a child psychologist to develop the scheme of work and an external evaluator to monitor the impact of the project.