The creative arts are an incredibly powerful tool for enhancing wellbeing and developing skills. As a charity, Create empowers lives through the creative arts, focusing on the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children and adults across the UK. Our partnership with British Land for young carers is a great example of this.

There are over 700,000 young carers in the UK, who spend an average of 17 hours a week caring for a disabled or unwell family member. Some care for more than 50 hours every week. Pause to think what that means. For many, it means missing school, underachieving, loneliness and mental and physical ill health. Two-thirds of young carers get bullied and nearly half feel that society doesn’t think of them at all. These challenging childhood experiences can have impacts that last a lifetime, affecting the individuals, their families, communities and society.

Through our award-winning art:space partnership with British Land we give young carers living locally to British Land’s places the chance to enjoy a break from their caring responsibilities and do something collaborative and creative. Projects include dance, drama, film, music, ceramics and sculpture.

Our professional artists enable these vulnerable young people to develop their creative thinking, teamwork and social skills, while having fun and building supportive relationships with other young carers. Their ideas are listened to, valued and incorporated within original art pieces, which enhances their confidence. 

British Land also creates inspiring opportunities for the young carers to display and perform their artworks. Whether it’s exhibiting their paintings, screening films they’ve made or hosting dance performances, this gives young carers a voice, enhancing their sense of self-esteem and self-worth.

The programme raises aspirations too, as young carers meet volunteers from British Land, wonderful role models who are really interested in them. And British Land’s places, with amazing architecture and artworks, often provide inspiration for our artists and young carers.

Empowering young lives

I recently spent time with a young carer who’s taken part in several art:space programmes. She talked about caring for her older brother who has autism and learning disabilities, looking after her eight-year-old sister and providing emotional and practical support for her mum, a single parent.

She often gets up at 4am to do her homework and study because after school her caring responsibilities mean she has no time. She plays a significant role in the family finances too, contributing the £5 pocket money her absent father gives her each week, to make ends meet. When she goes out with friends, she drinks water, because spending £2.50 on a coffee is a luxury that she would not allow herself. 

She told me that through doing projects with our artists, she’s learnt how to think creatively, which has massively helped her schoolwork. She’s so proud of the film she made, and she now makes films with her sister in the yard at weekends, using a phone. When she gets a moment to herself, she also draws and paints, which she says frees her from stress and anxiety. She’s 14 years old.

Individually designing programmes

We individually design all our programmes, working with each young carer service to understand their objectives and the needs of their young people, and with the British Land teams to fulfil their placemaking and community objectives. 

When one young carers service told us about a group of hard-to-reach female young carers who’d never taken up any of the opportunities offered, we designed a jewellery workshop especially for them. Our jewellery maker created gifts, which were sent to them with an invitation to the workshop. The target was for at least four to attend but eight took part. Importantly, six went on to develop a deeper relationship with the service.

Enhancing wellbeing and developing skills

The power of the creative arts to enhance wellbeing and develop skills is remarkable. An All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry revealed that 82% of people living in deprived areas of London enjoyed greater wellbeing after engaging with the arts. It also highlighted the economic benefits, with an ‘arts-on-prescription’ project showing a 37% drop in GP visits and 27% drop in hospital admissions, saving £216 per person.

With increasing use of robotics, humans uniquely contribute creativity. The World Economic Forum identified creativity as the third most important skill for business by 2020; and a study of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the single most important skill for leaders. 

Partnership spanning almost 17 years

Our partnership with British Land spans almost 17 years. We started working together in 2003 when British Land funded our first ever project – Shake an Egg! – on day eight of Create’s first year.

I hope that British Land’s people, customers and partners feel proud of being involved with a company that values community. Together we’ve empowered the lives of more than 1,000 young carers and we look forward to this continuing to grow.

Create won Children & Young People Now’s “Young Carers Award” 2019 – awarded for the initiative that has done the most to support young carers in the UK.