Natasha tells us a bit about her role and what it can mean for our community both close to home and as a wider community:

“At Yeovil Art Space we aim to create connectivity between our town’s schools and the people and organisations that can support and enhance the lives of the people who live in and around Yeovil, through the power of arts and creativity.  

Connect Somerset is about improving early help in the community.  It is how we work together across professions to wrap around families and residents, refresh the teams around the school model and work closely with voluntary and community resources. This will help to deliver support closer to home and remove barriers to relational practice between professionals and local people and families.  This project is there to support local communities.  Twelve champions  have been identified, all with different areas of specialism,  who are already leaders in their local communities. Leadership from the community will improve public services, so we design services from the community out and connect better together.

As part of the Education for Life Strategy, champions will help schools to transition to a refreshed team around the school model and become important anchors in their communities. Champions will engage all professionals in an area, in education, community, health services, social enterprise organisations and voluntary and community sector professionals. Connect Somerset hopes to develop core hubs and a network of local delivery hubs, particularly in rural areas and our Somerset towns.”

Yeovil Art Space has been working in partnership with members of our Art Action Group, a co-creative working hub that we created in 2022 to work towards a shared vision for the town of Yeovil; we use community mapping* and work on creative projects in wellbeing, education, inclusion, social enterprise, environmental and culture & heritage. 

*https://www.onioncollective.co.uk/understory

Find out more about Connect Somerset here https://connectsomerset.org.uk/information-and-advice/connect-somerset-champions/