Yeovil Art Space with Connect Somerset

In 2023 Yeovil Art Space announced that Natasha Rand, our Engagement Director, was to take on the role of Yeovil’s Connect Somerset Champion.

Since then Natasha has worked with an incredible amount of local organisations, schools and residents in Yeovil. Connecting people and resources to encourage community wellbeing and improve early help for local people and families.

Early help is a specific approach to support children, young people and their families, to provide preventative support to resolve issues before they escalate into crises later on. As one of the 12 Connect Champions in Somerset Natasha represents not just the Yeovil area but also the place Art and Culture has in Early help.

Through Natasha’s role we have been delighted to invite many local schools and groups to Yeovil Art Space projects, including the Yeovil Together International flower garden, Julie Swinnerton’s “Our Town” Bloomin’ Yeovil metal-making, Brendan Barry’s Camera Obscura photo sessions, Juneau Projects Wassail costume making, the Art Weekender celebration, and Sue Green’s ‘Plastic Fantastic’ fusing, and more!

Testimonial from a recent project with the Tor School on ‘Our Town’:

“The experiences you created allowed our students not only to develop creatively but also to contribute positively to their community. For young people who are often defined by past difficulties, behaviour and trauma, being recognised for something inspiring, beautiful and meaningful has been transformational. Your projects reinforced the message we strive to give them every day: that they are loved, they matter, and they are worthy, regardless of their past experiences.”

We are also proud that Yeovil Art Space can be found linked with and supporting events like Yeovil Together, Earth Day and Home Farm Fest as we support other charities and organisations that align with our own charity objectives.

Amongst many other ways to link people together Natasha has brought ‘Community Connectors’ meetings to Yeovil, and has created an ‘Art and Design Educators network’, gathering those in the voluntary and education sectors strategically, to be informed about each others roles and inspired to work together.

Find Natasha’s page here at Connect Yeovil

Connect Somerset Announcement 2023:

Zoe Li (YAS Executive Director) and Natasha Rand with the Together We Are Stronger Project in 2021

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.

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

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