Taking community learning to the European Parliament

Russell Hogarth, a director of the Design in Mental Health Network, and Nigel Farnworth, manager and coordinator of the Creative Communities Group UK (CCGUK), accompanied by two community members, both experts by mental health lived experience, were recently invited to attend the European Parliament and a series of further meetings in Brussels. The week-long visit’s aim was both to spread word of the work undertaken by CCG UK, and strengthen existing bonds with a number of key European community learning organisations based in the Belgian capital. Russell Hogarth, Honorary Fellow and Community Ambassador at the University of Central Lancashire, reports.

The CCGUK – of which I was a co-founder in 2012 – aims to empower people, locally, nationally, and internationally, for positive change through volunteering and community engagement. Supporting university and community partners in a variety of activities – including the arts, sciences, history, health, and social awareness –the CCGUK also supports creative teaching as a pathway to inclusion and accessible education. Many of the members are individuals with lived experience of mental ill health, for whom both volunteering and participating in a variety of arts and educationalbased activities can be a major catalyst to recovery. A number have gone on to work in mental healthcare.

A ‘UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY’