Building Community

The Story so Far

Back in September 2019 I committed to building on a project that I had started in 2015 — The Bee Creative Community. I talked to a friend about putting together a website to showcase the activites and achievements of this group, with the intention of potentially widening the audience and creating a space to contain practical ideas for creative therapy. Sitting down to write the following blog post on my shiny new Wordpress site, I was struck by how simple ideas, and a lot of dedication to the cause, developed the casual workshop sessions run in local cafes and pubs to become an established ‘safe space’ for some of the more vulnerable people in the community to thrive.

‘As I look back over the past four years, I am trying to remember what lead me to begin running the Bee Creative Community Workshops. As a creative myself at the time, I saw the benefits of indulging in a artistic past time outside of the day job. Don’t get me wrong I love being a teacher, and at the time I had a great job coaching GCSE students in a city academy which was both meaningful and rewarding, but I needed something else — an outlet. I have always had a creative side, my most successful subjects at school were art and literature, and I love any opportunity to let my imagination run free.

Creativity somehow helps to balance out the pressures of work and life in general. I suppose if I thought that creating had this effect on me, then it could work this way for other people too. And so my little eco-sewing business extended to a series of creative workshops, which started as part of other events like The Remarkable Recycling Gala and the Sunshine Vintage Bazaar. Sewing has been one of my passions since I was a child, however my first workshops were based on origami models I learned from a special needs teacher I used to work with, who helped me to retrain my non-logical brain with a series of increasingly complex models.

Origami is a great craft to learn as it is entirely portable and resources needed are minimal, and so it became a therapeutic art-form that I could take anywhere and teach anyone. Once mastered, the repetitive actions are known to calm the mind and it can be incredibly satisfying watching the pile of carefully creased models grow in front of you. Some of our group origami sessions have led to some beautiful installations. One of my favourites was Travelling with Nature, a destination focused project that saw us sending folded butterflies all over the world, which encouraged visitors to Beeston Library to fold and contribute their own handmade butterflies.

Crafting in a group does so much more than offer an opportunity for some time-out, it also promotes community. It is this that spurred me on more, I think. Watching how participants confidence has grown both in their creative abilities and social interactions has hit home how much these weekly sessions can help to combat loneliness and make people feel part of a group. Humans are social animals and we crave interaction, even if it we like it to be on our terms, and I hope that running group sessions like Bee Creative Community Workshops goes some way to breaking down the barriers that some people have with regard to meeting people with similar interests.

I have seen friendships develop, heard coffee dates being arranged and all of this encourages me to build on what was once an idea to get people together crafting, just for the sheer goodness of it. Since moving to Middle Street Resource Centre in June 2017, Bee Creative has attracted local people of all ages and backgrounds and although mainly female there are occasionally male participants too and anyone is welcome. People who rely on the mental health services supplied by Middle Street Resource Centre sit comfortably with members of the wider local community and there is always an atmosphere of encouragement and warmth. It’s what makes what we do so special.’

Pre-pandemic, the group met every Monday evening to enjoy a range of activities, including painting, printmaking, stitching, collage, decoupage and of course origami. By now I had managed to recruit three other dedicated volunteers, each of whom brought their own unique skills and interests with them — it was running like a dream! But then…

of course we know what happened then. Undettered by the lockdowns and restrictions, we did manage to keep connected over the subsequent two years and proudly displayed our community quilt and then a collection of postcards we had pieced together via the excellent postal service and clandestine meetings in parks.

I am resurrecting this blog post, and plan to do the same with others, as a way of reflecting on how this wonderful community have supported each other over a turbulent and somewhat terrifying time, and why it has become even more important to keep on building.

You can read all of the original blog posts here whilst it’s still live —but December 2022 feels like the right time to reinvent things again.

DU