Martin Ball from Valley Community Theatre talks about his experience of supporting NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group with engagement activities.
Filming of Quaker Oats advert with Sean Bean at Valley Community Theatre
About us
We are a registered charity taking pride in our inclusive ethos and free provision for our local community in Netherley, Liverpool. Valley is recognised as an invaluable contributor towards acheiving positive outcomes for our community and throughout the city. For the past 27 years Valley has increased community cohesion and social inclusion by offering arts based activities to provide equality of opportunity focusing on individual needs and bespoke arts programmes. Currently supported by The Steve Morgan Foundation, Liverpool City Council and Liverpool Community and Voluntary Services, our practise is completely inclusive, bespoke and extremely effective. Our previous work has been championed by Liverpool City Council and NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group for examples of best practice and award winning programmes, sharing our effective community engagement learning with peers via:
seminars at NHS conferences,
having our youth arts programmes rolled-out city wide
having our education and awareness films on Human Trafficking and SUDEP (sudden death in epilepsy) screened nationally and internationally in NHS surgeries and shared by MEP’s to increase awareness.
In addition, some of our work involves public consultation. Our NHS commissions have included local community engagement with the most hard to reach and disadvantaged members of our community to gather their opinions on NHS services in Liverpool. These were delivered using innovative, inclusive arts mediums including:
facilitating a pop-up cinema in our local park to gather peoples opinions on proposals for future NHS services
a forum theatre piece on dermatology services
an immersive, interactive promenade theatre piece titled ‘My Birthday’ which involved taking the audience on a journey through the eyes of a new born baby to provide stimulation for discussion on the proposals for Liverpool Womens Hospital.
These commissions enabled us to engage with seldom heard groups to gain their opinions on matters important to them and their future health.
Nurturing equality of opportunity through community arts engagement since 1994.
Providing a vital community engagement hub to ensure equality of opportunity.
Our main aims focus on providing a local service using the arts to make a difference to the lives of children, adults and families most in need. We aim to have a positive impact on peoples’ quality of life; improve physical health, mental health and well being, decrease social isolation, provide opportunities to learn new skills and volunteer.
We offer high quality arts and personal development activities at no cost to the participant.
Throughout this year we have provided arts sessions and events for adults, children and families. Our community have benefitted from arts activities including:
performing live theatre and music gigs to audiences, music rehearsal, composition and recording in our recording studios and stone vocal booth, dance in our studios, art / props / scenery making, creative writing, film and tech.
HAF Provision
We provide HAF (Free Holiday Activities and Food) for 8 to 16 year olds during the school holidays. Funded by MPAC (Merseyside Play Action Council) and Liverpool City Council.
This includes delivering arts activities and providing a hot meal, a take-home breakfast bag and healthy snacks and drinks throughout the day.
Fun Drama Games and Art!
In addition to free healthy food, MPAC also provide us with arts / craft / sport activity boxes and board games for us to use on the project and / or for the children and young people to take home.
Funding
Currently we are funded by Liverpool City Council, Public Health Liverpool, Merseyside Play Action Council (MPAC) and Liverpool Community and Voluntary Service (LCVS). Valley is a modern, well facilitated, working theatre which provides the perfect receiving and rehearsal venue for local and national touring companies. This provides the local community access to high quality theatre productions on their doorstep. It is also ideal for Dance, Drama and Music Festivals and end of year performances. Complete with Auditorium, professional Recording Studio, Film Editing Stations, Office Space & Dance Studios we offer space for creatives, productions, rehearsals, gigs, audio recording, film shoots, film editing, conferences and dance. As we are a Registered Charity, the funds raised from hires and our cafe help us to continue to provide free arts activities for our community. Please see our ‘Hire’ section.
Public Consultation
Community Consultation September 2021 Results:
Consultation: July – September 2021
Mixture of: One to one, group and survey consultation, 4 face to face events with individuals and 1 online meeting with partner agencies.
15 organisations consulted in total (8 face to face/7 surveyed) – including:Liverpool CCG, 2 x schools, Liverpool Culture, Liverpool Targeted Services (Youth and Play)
· 118 individuals consulted in total (73 individuals surveyed - 36 face to face)
o 8 parents/carers face to face
o 11 Adult service users face to face
o 17 children/young people face to face
o 7 adult community members face to face
Key statistics from individual surveys:
· 73 surveys completed:
o 22 (31%) aged 0-25
o 37 (51%) aged 26-60
o 13 (18%) 60 or older
· 75% state insufficient local facilities to help improve/maintain health
· 71% state suitable venues are too far away
· 60% state alternatives are too expensive
· 93% state that increasing service provision will increase individual centre usage
· 77% state there are not enough facilities locally to support people to come together to improve their quality of life
· 79% state there are not enough facilities locally to support people to learn new skills
· 83% state there are not enough facilities locally to increase people’s engagement in the arts/culture
· 99% state that improving the centre would make the area a better place to live, work or visit.
· Impact of Covid
· 61% Covid has made mental health worse
· 48% Covid made physical health worse
· 72% reduced community connections
· 72% reduced level of involvement in community activity
· 35% report Covid worsened their financial situation
· Impact of VCT
· 98% state using VCT will improve mental health
· 86% state using VCT will improve physical health
· 93% state using VCT will increase level of involvement in community activity
· 97% state using VCT will improve feeling of community connection
· 38% state using VCT would improve their financial situation
Key Statistics from Agency / Partner Surveys:
7 completed –working with total of 5,135 people per month:
Impact of Covid
· 86% report Covid has made mental health worse
· 71% report Covid made physical health worse
· 33% report reduced community connections
· 67% report reduced level of involvement in community activity
· 72% report Covid worsened their financial situation
When asked: HOW MANY USERS WOULD YOU REFER TO VCT PER MONTH?
Our partners and agencies stated they would refer:
50 each per month = 350 per month in total.
Impact of VCT
· 100% state using VCT will improve mental health
· 100% state using VCT will improve physical health
· 100% state using VCT will increase level of involvement in community activity
· 100% state using VCT will improve feeling of community connection
· 100% state using VCT would improve their financial situation
“Life enriching and innovative to the core, this is without doubt, a great place to create! Experiencing the progression of our beneficiaries, volunteers and staff serve as a constant reminder of the purpose of this organisation and how vital a resource this is for the community.”
— Martin Ball, Director