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Leeds Beckett University School of Health joins UK-wide programme to combat health inequalities
ARts and Culture in Health EcoSystems (ARCHES), led by Professor Mark Gamsu of the Centre of Health Promotion Research and working with Locality – a national network supporting community organisations, is one of 12 new research projects, funded by the AHRC, exploring how culture and nature can level up health and wellbeing across the UK.
Professor Gamsu said: “We are very pleased that Leeds Beckett University has been included in the AHRC Health Disparities Programme. The School of Health at Leeds Beckett has a substantial track record working with communities and community organisations, developing the evidence base on the impact they can make to improving health and wellbeing and tackling health inequalities.
“This programme will help us explore and highlight how these organisations are developing programmes involving arts, culture and the natural environment as an essential part of improving wellbeing.
“We hope that this will help local and national decision makers be clearer about the contribution that the local voluntary sector can make.”
ARCHES works with four community organisations to identify ways of helping address health inequalities while making this work more sustainable and able to be scaled up:
- Halifax Opportunities Trust;
- St Paul’s Community Development Trust, Birmingham;
- Pembroke House in Southwark, London;
- Agency for Culture and Change Management (ACCM), Bedford.
The project received £180,000 funding from the AHRC earlier this year, as part of the Council’s aim to generate evidence to support the rollout of place-based approaches to creative health, growing an evidence base for positive change.
The programme is a collaboration between the AHRC, National Centre for Creative Health, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
Professor Helen Chatterjee, AHRC’s Health Disparities Programme Director, says: “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted stark health disparities across the UK. Access to local cultural activities and natural spaces can play an important role in health and wellbeing.
“This programme takes a place-based approach to public health, exploring new avenues to tackle health disparities across the country.
“By connecting research directly with decision making at local, regional and national levels, we hope to build a new scalable model that leads to healthier communities across the whole of the UK.”
Alex Coulter, Director of the National Centre for Creative Health, says: “We are really delighted to be working in partnership with AHRC and with the twelve research projects across the UK.
“The National Centre for Creative Health aims to advance good practice and research, helping foster the conditions for creative health to be integral to health and social care and wider systems.
“Working with Professor Helen Chatterjee, we will ensure that learning from the research projects informs wider systems change. The range and scope of the projects will provide a rich evidence base for the spread and adoption of creative health approaches that can mitigate health disparities.”