Helix Arts, which uses creativity to initiate change and promote wellbeing, has welcomed a £75,000 grant from the Legal and General Health Equity Fund.
The North Shields-based arts charity will use the money to help improve the lives of hundreds of North Tyneside residents.
It will enable it to expand Better Connect, its creative health programme that brings people together through projects led by professional artists, focusing in particular on the growing problem of social isolation.
Last year the charity reached 2,377 people through the programme which comprised 221 creative sessions. More than 500 of those people were new participants.
Director Cheryl Gavin said the work of Helix Arts was “about making sure as many people as possible can have the chance to improve their health and wellbeing through creativity.
“We are serious about its vital role and about how specific creative approaches can improve health.”
Explaining that demand invariably exceeded what the charity could deliver, she argued that people’s health needs should be supported “in long-term and progressive ways” rather than “in short-term blocks”.
Grants from the £3m Legal and General Health Equity Fund, an initiative run in partnership with University College London’s Institute of Health Equity, were awarded to 43 applicants across the country, with Helix Arts the only arts recipient in the North East.
Prof Sir Michael Marmot, director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, described the number of applications as “both incredible and depressing”.
“Over 1,500 applications were received, reflecting the desperate need caused by government budget cuts to organisations committed to improving lives,” he said.
“Yet the response also fills me with hope, as it shows how many understand that closing widening health gaps starts with improving peopleʼs social circumstances.ˮ
Pete Gladwell, of Legal & General, said: “A stable economy and healthy society go hand in hand, and businesses and investors can help support both.
“With regional prosperity depending on peopleʼs health, reducing disparities in social determinants of health should be a priority for investors and government.”