Author Archives: Charlie Gibson
Changing minds and lives! The Success of Creative English and Health Literacy
Vaccinations have been a controversial topic since Edward Jenner created the first smallpox vaccine in 1796. If you are navigating the world of vaccines in a country where the main language spoken is not one you feel confident in, this can be especially overwhelming. Speakers […]
Creative English for Infant Health: Bringing Families Together
Data and case studies are now in, from the hubs that delivered our Creative English for Infant Health programme. Across the board, it is becoming clear that we need to respond to the issue of infant mortality by including a range of family members in […]
Creative English for Health: Pushing Back Boundaries
How do we measure the impact of a project that is based in the arts? It’s not easy. From 2023-2024, we delivered our Creative English for Cardiovascular Health programme with 586 individuals in 10 different community locations across Birmingham, funded by the local Public Health […]
Faith, Health and Community Action in Tower Hamlets
As part of their COVID-19 recovery plan, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Council decided to look to faith groups as delivery partners to improve health outcomes across the borough. As trusted partners through our work with the Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum, the borough’s […]
Creative English for Health – FaithAction Begins New Programme in Birmingham
FaithAction have recently been awarded funding by Birmingham City Council to deliver our community-based ESOL programme, Creative English, with places of worship, faith-based and community organisations within Birmingham. Designed through Dr Anne Smith’s PhD research into belonging, Creative English carries the tagline ‘laugh your way […]
Can Creative English really work on Zoom? A facilitator reflects on a year of online drama
When we first went into lockdown last year, I’ll be honest, figuring out how to run drama sessions online wasn’t very high on my list of priorities. I was more immediately concerned with how I would access the books I needed to write my MA […]
A celebration of small things
This experience that no one could ever have imagined that the world would go through… it has really made a lot of people appreciate the small things in life, the really small things, you know? Seeing people’s faces again. Going out for a coffee with […]
Tackling isolation with English language learning
‘I’m not depressed any more. I have friends. I go out of my house. This class has made the difference: learning with fun and friends!’ – Learner Not only are socially isolated individuals more prone to depression, loneliness also increases the likelihood of mortality by 26%. […]
Finding your feet in another country
Before I started working on FaithAction’s Creative English programme, I spent a year living and working as teacher of English as a foreign language in Italy. I had learnt a bit of Italian, having spent the previous two summers working at camps across the country […]
‘Welcome is a Radical Act’
Anne and I recently attended a conference at Goldsmiths University of London titled ‘Welcome is a Radical Act: an action/reflection event on the arts and refugees.’ In all honesty I hadn’t really done any brain-engaged thinking about the title before we arrived—I suppose I was […]
