This is a cross-post from Sheffield Flourish. Sheffield Flourish is a community hub that enables people living with mental health conditions to find the resources and connections they need to build the lives they wish to lead. People living with mental health difficulties have led in building and shaping Sheffield Flourish.
Rotherham Flourish is a collaborative art group which brings people together to question preconceived ideas about mental health. The project was created and is led by Shirin Teifouri; and it will be holding its first exhibition on 9th December in Mowbray Gardens Library, Rotherham.
By using different mediums of expressions such as storytelling, creative writing, poetry, and painting, this project has explored unheard narratives of trauma, fragmented identities, displacement, (un)recovery, solidarity, flourishing, and hope. During 10 weeks course, the participants who came from different backgrounds and age groups (from 17 to 66 years old), have created a ‘community’ through creative solidarity, compassion and friendship.
For a glimpse of the project please watch this short film created by Shirin.
This project was funded by Rotherham City Council and is led by Dr Shirin Teifouri (Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield and an Associate for Sheffield Flourish), in collaboration with Christl Kettle, Alnaar Clayton, Chris Gaynor in Mowbray Gardens library, and eight participants from Rotherham who experience different kinds of mental health difficulties.