Asylum seekers in South Tyneside are being given the chance to express their creativity with a new project at The Customs House.
Earlier in the year, The Customs House in South Shields set up weekly 'Chill and Chat' sessions in order to promote looking after your mental health through the creative arts.
For this latest project, The Customs House have worked with CREST (Compact for Racial Equality South Tyneside ) to bring a dozen men together that are living in the area to make photography and videography projects that tell their different stories.
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When the projects are finished they will be publicly shared and drama sessions to go alongside the projects have also been planned.
The Customs House have used the £2,400 grant from Newcastle Building Society to pay for materials and equipment needed to run these sessions as well as refreshments, room hire fees and a professional tutor to run the project.
The Learning and Participation team at The Customs House aim to engage local communities and promote diversity through a range of projects, both in the venue and across South Tyneside.
Margarita Rebolledo, community engagement officer at The Customs House said, “We work to provide opportunities for everyone in our area to experience and participate in the arts, and when we looked at the provision for male asylum seekers and migrants living in South Tyneside, we found that there was very little available to them.
“Many of our participants have had a very tough time in getting to our community, and in their present situations, they don’t have much time or opportunity to think about much more than their everyday existence in a strange new place.
“As well as providing the chance to express their creativity and take on new ideas, our sessions have a positive benefit to participants’ wellbeing and mental health, give them a chance to socialise in a supporting environment and make new connections with people who may have had similar experiences to them.
"The feedback we’ve had so far has been very encouraging, with participants telling us how much they look forward to coming to their ‘art haven,’ and we’re looking forward to seeing the results of their work in the future. With so many different community projects to fund, we simply couldn’t have made this one happen without Newcastle Building Society’s help and we’re very grateful for their generous support.”
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