What Cost Folks? was a year long community action research project which looked at the impact of the cost of living crisis on the wellbeing and mental health of the Folkestone Community. The project aimed to open up dialogue and bridge the gap between the community and stakeholders, using creative research methods as a tool to create questions and understand issues that the community would like to address.
We facilitated art drop-ins, workshops and exhibitions at Fourth Wall Folkestone and in community cafes and Wood Avenue Library in Folkestone. We explored creative research methods, made artworks, collages, badges, written prescriptions for Folkestone, had creative discussions, made giant spreadsheets on walls, had fun with Lego Serious Play, enjoyed chats over a cuppa and shared the research process on social media and in exhibitions at Fourth Wall Folkestone.
What Cost Folks? was hosted by Fourth Wall Folkestone and the University of Kent, with support from the University of Reading, the Scottish Community Development Centre and IVAR. It was funded by the Workforce Training & Education Directorate, NHS England South East.
Research Findings
The final exhibition was the culmination of the research, showing our findings and identifying the actions our community wanted to be taken in order to improve their mental health and wellbeing, particularly during the cost of living crisis.
The research indicated a lack of access to and knowledge about mental health and wellbeing services and gaps between severe mental illness and secondary care. A recommendation is that local councils should work towards improving signposting to local mental health and wellbeing support and activity.
It was also highlighted that local council decisions directly impact local people and national politics impact local issues; with housing, health and the environment being key issues raised by our community.
Our findings were that Arts and Culture are a core part of Folkestone’s identity, and strong evidence indicated that art activity supported the wellbeing of our community, with requests for local funding to increase arts activity focussing on mental wellbeing in diverse community settings.
Contributors particularly welcomed the use of arts based activities as they were inclusive, accessible and an alternative way to communicate compared to traditional research methods. People now want more opportunities to use creative methods to open up dialogue about mental health and wellbeing and particularly to address systemic change within the NHS when it comes to how, where, when and for whom services should be delivered.
In order to achieve this, we need universities to provide opportunities for education and training in the use of creative research methods. Academic, Health and Arts Funders need to make changes in their funding criteria to encourage Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSE) working at a grass-roots level to get involved in co-production and community action research using creative methods. Short term action research projects such as What Cost Folks? are too short to be able to fully explore research findings and encourage action so longer term funding is crucial to allow research to become impactful.
Fourth Wall Folkestone now requires further funding to enable us to carry on exploring creative action research methods in order to influence positive systemic change in arts and mental health.