Anti-Racist Action in Arts & Wellbeing: ‘The Power of Lived Experience Through Storytelling – Black Men & Mental Health’ Roundtable

Join us for a free online roundtable, designed and delivered by Isaac Samuels and Elkin, exploring health inequalities and the lived experience of men from Black and minoritised ethnic communities.

Flourishing Lives and the Anti-Racist Action Group in Arts & Wellbeing invite you to our latest free online workshop exploring anti-racist action and inclusive practice in arts & wellbeing services.

We are delighted to be working in partnership with Isaac Samuels and Elkin (Lived Experience and Co-production Advisors) on this workshop and are immensely grateful to them both for designing and facilitating the session.

During this session, we will ensure that arts and wellbeing organisations have the opportunity to hear directly from Black and Brown (global majority) men about their lived experience of racism, and the barriers that these men face which prevent them from accessing arts and wellbeing services and all of the physical, social and mental health benefits that those services can offer.

Using Community Reporting methodology and peer-to-peer conversations, we will examine the issues together. People who attend will be considered ‘Contributors’ on the journey, exploring the living experience of global majority men and the barriers they face in accessing services.

Contributors will leave the session able to take their greater knowledge and understanding back to their organisations, equipped with some commitments which they have developed from their understanding of racism and its effects. This means that they will be able to interrogate the systemic barriers within their own organisations/institutions and start to implement the short, mid, and long-term changes that are necessary to ensure equal access for global majority men to arts and wellbeing services.

This is an invitation. We welcome everybody who comes with an open mind who wants to learn and journey with us. Join us to share ideas and advocate for inclusive practice and anti-racist action across the arts and wellbeing sector.

About Isaac and Elkin
Isaac and Elkin are passionate about mental health and social justice. Both have a long history in working to amplify the voices of the excluded, marginalised and global majority communities. They are collaborating on this piece of work to highlight and centre the inequalities that men from Black and minoritised backgrounds experience on a daily basis. They will do this through hosting a brave space to have conversations and broaden knowledge amongst those who share their passion to address these challenges. At the heart of all their work is co-production and they will be using story telling as a means to create this space for reflection and change. 

About The Anti-Racist Action Group in Arts & Wellbeing:
The Anti-Racist Action Group in Arts & Wellbeing is a group of representatives from arts, wellbeing and race equality charities – including Flourishing Lives, HEAR Network, Race Equality Foundation, Decolonising the Archive, and Southwark Culture Health and Wellbeing Partnership – who partner with ethnically and culturally diverse organisations, facilitators, community groups, participants and people to share their knowledge, expertise, learning and lived experience to support the wider arts and wellbeing sector to explore anti-racist action, and develop wider engagement in the arts and mental health. The aim is to facilitate conversations, deepen understanding and identify opportunities for change.

This discussion is part of an ongoing series of workshops and roundtables kindly funded by The National Lottery Community Fund which will support Flourishing Lives and the Anti-Racist Action Group to explore a range of topics, issues and anti-racist actions over the next 2 years to help advocate for inclusive practice across the arts and wellbeing sector.


Supporting people to participate:
We recognise it can sometimes be hard to attend events if you’re self employed or work part time, if you are a volunteer for a project or are the only person working in a community organisation, so we are offering a limited amount of financial support to ensure everyone who wants to attend is able to. For this event we can offer a £50 bursary to five participants. Unfortunately funds are limited so we can’t support everyone, and will be allocating on a first come first served basis once the criteria is met. When you register for the workshop you will have the option to apply for one of the bursary places. On review we will be in touch with those who have been successful in receiving the financial support.  

Join us to share ideas and advocate for inclusive practice and anti-racist action across the arts and wellbeing sector.

Date:
Tuesday 31st October 2023, 11.30am – 1pm GMT