by Tracy Shaw, Loca Creatives Director
This week we turn the corner into our third year - a good moment to pause, reflect on two years' work and enjoy looking back at the highlights. To everyone who has played a part in the work and helped Loca Creatives grow wings and fly over the past twenty-four months, a huge Thank You. Thanks too to all those who have taken the time to get to know us, explore ideas for working together and plant seeds for the future - it feels full of possibility. If you've not connected with us yet but like the look of what we do and think there might be opportunities to use our specialist skills, we do of course welcome speculative enquiries and exploratory conversations!
- Teaming up with Contour Homes, devising and getting underway with Cornerstones, getting to know St Mary's, the chance to play a part in a newly forming community, working towards a new shared space, making great contacts in Oldham - we love being there.
- Making a difference for children and young people who are struggling with difficult circumstances and feelings, through expertly facilitated work which we know has helped them turn corners and find better ways of coping - we know because of the evaluation we do, and because children and school staff tell us so.
- Helping young people face the move to high school with optimism and confidence, and deal positively with change, through targeted group projects that have also helped primary and secondary schools make stronger links with each other around transition.
- Fantastic family projects - enabling parents and kids to discover the joy of spending creative, playful time and learning new skills together; and offering schools a way of strengthening their own relationships with parents.
- Passing on skills and equipping people with creative tools and ideas to use in their own work, through tailor-made training sessions - for teachers, school support staff and community development workers.
- Contributing to Wakefield Public Health team's work around Risk and Resilience, by doing demonstration projects with groups of 'vulnerable' children and designing a suite of on-line resources for teachers and children's workers.
- The Change Project - a privilege and pleasure to work with community arts organisation Mosaic and BBEST (Batley & Birstall Excellence in Schools Together) to make this amazing project happen - twice! Several other arts-in-schools projects too.
- Fundraising results - numerous successes with developing funding proposals and bids, creating win-win opportunities to collaborate on actual projects with other organisations.
- Brilliant artists - our Core Team, our Creative Associates, and numerous others with whom we've had the pleasure to work on 28 projects - and without whom none of it would have been possible.
- Some great guest blog posts - take a look (and if you feel inspired to offer one yourself please do get in touch)
- Connections - virtual, real, old, new, enduring, fleeting - they make our world go round and give us reasons to celebrate every day.
