The Future is OK!
Establishing ‘Project OK’ as a creative health brand. Next phase of delivery May 2025 – March 2026
From the incredible impact of Project OK 2024, this community-led creative health project will establish 'Project OK' as a brand. Introducing a more robust & stable framework, as we explore relevant organisational development, to introduce a more stable & robust framework, in which to hold & manage the momentum of work & opportunities. Rapidly expanding partnerships, and opportunities, both now and on the horizon, are testament to the Project OK’s impact.
Project OK will give each individual, and the communities we work with, the space to have their voice heard.
The Future is OK! Words of support. To read please click here
The Future is OK!
Impact from Project OK 2024
People experiencing cultural activity in a physical space: 5,000
Participants: 3,000
Volunteers: 30
Creative team: 40
Digital: 500
Publication: 300
Testimonials of impact from 2024:
“Great learning for kids. Emotional to watch”
“Comfortable” “Proud” “Inclusive, collaborative”
“Leaving on a high. Community, social”
“Flexible & supportive schedule”
“Watching the incredible dancers. My children were transfixed. Got to see something they wouldn’t normally see.”
“Lovely experience, nice to watch & make connections” “More wellbeing sessions for pre-teens”
“More family friendly events” “More Community events”
“Events like this, bringing culture, arts & inspiring our children”
“This is inclusive & open to all” “Full of joy” “Helping others. Being accepted”
“Joyful new success & confidence found”
OK Intro: This creative health project will focus on legacy, culture for change, & social cohesion across underrepresented areas, which will support mental health & wellbeing.
Movement as the core artistic principle, supported by a creative umbrella of cross art forms. The project will include ‘It’s OK' dance films, 'OK Poetry' opportunity, 'OKit' digital toolkit for schools & EOTAS. 'OK Together' intergenerational, 'OK Care' female led enquiry, 'OK What Do We Need?' regular provision exploration, 'Move & Mooch' outdoors, work 'I Am OK' igniting women’s wellness & presented in clinical/research settings. 'Feelings' developed with early years for outdoors, & 'Homing' development ‘Pigeon’ Mass movement piece for GRIT 2025.
Project Aims & examples of work included in delivery
Creative People:
Project OK will reach communities in Southam & District, Coventry, Nuneaton, Birmingham & Leamington Brunswick.
‘It’s OK’ films: X3 new short dance films, inspiring community members & young people. Directly involved in co creation, will then go on to have an extensive reach & impact on wellbeing.
Young Minds
Work with a core team of pupils from across the Stowe Valley MAT to co create/produce a short film, using the mediums of movement, performing & creative arts. A team of young creative producers will drive the creation. Project partner schools, & Home Ed providers from across our target areas, will collaborate as performers. Accessible/local sites will be co-managed in person, by our young creative team, & will steer artist led delivery in advance/remotely, with locations further afield. The film, made in partnership with a local mental health charity, will raise awareness of young people’s mental health & wellbeing. This is our second phase with the rural/isolated Stowe Valley MAT. We look forward to further developments and building new partnerships with subsequent schools.
OK Together
Collaboration between RBL care home Galanos, Men’s Shed Southam & support from partner Org, The Together Project. Young wellness leads from Stowe Valley MAT will support the sessions & co creation. The film will capture intergenerational sessions & performative work between care home residents, families, & a creative collaboration with the Men’s Shed, (and women) who will co design an accessible social bench, with carvings in response to the intergenerational movement sessions, to be used artistically in the film, then have a functional use on site at the care home, for all to enjoy. Post delivery, OK Together sessions will continue, and future collaborations with The Men’s Shed will build.
Light:
In partnership with charity Len’s Light, this film will be co-created with Warwickshire Young Farmers, to raise awareness of young suicide prevention within the farming & agricultural community, specifically targeting young people. The film will initiate a creative offering amongst the young farming community, with a ripple effect both regionally & nationally, which will continue with the support or ‘Project OK.’ We look forward to seeing this partnership grow and are so happy to be supporting the charity and its vital work.
OK Poetry
Working with community spaces, library setting, local businesses & Arts uplift, this call out will be initially open to Stowe Valley MAT, and neighbouring primary schools, in the rural/isolated area of Southam & District. Focus on importance of place and its positive impact on wellbeing.
Young people’ s poetry & artwork created in response via Arts Uplifts outreach work, will be exhibited at Southam Library, and during this time dance workshops for children will be held & captured, to explore the work further. Post exhibition the exhibition will then tour to surrounding health practices, local businesses & community settings. Relevant to need & reach & values, this model of practice will be presented to subsequent library settings regionally.
‘Feelings’ weeklong takeover Coventry Cathedral:
During summer 2025, Project OK will, in collaboration with the Cathedral, key stake holders and surrounding communities, take over the main space for a week, and curate an inclusive programme of activity, both practical & visual based, around feelings, with health & wellbeing support. Filled with performance, workshops, art installation & conversation. Takeover will conclude with a community led micro exploration around future R&D for new work ‘Disconnect,’ (2026) combatting loneliness/isolation in response to ‘generation device’
‘Journey’ Romero Catholic MAC:
Resulting in a mass movement piece/part procession, also at Coventry Cathedral, including movement, and the creation of large-scale lanterns, which will be incorporated into the performance & exhibited post activity. With a significant number of mental health related issues, the MAC is trauma informed, and there is a current need for use of creativity to support wellness, confidence especially those who are identified as the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.
Cultural
Communities:
Community led Vision:
Inclusive community led steering group will be formed through engagement work across our core areas.There will be opportunities to meet cross region both remotely & in person, feeding into the steering group. Key members of the community including LA, councillors, health practitioners, educational leads, charities & stakeholders will be included. Volunteer ‘OK’ info pickers will be recruited and will feed into the overall evaluation of the project. This direct community involvement will be instrumental to project planning, design and future development.
OK What Do We Need?:
A community led voice will help to change the narrative of what creative provision is on offer place specific, and what more accessible model could look like, with the focus on social cohesion & need. A pilot programme will be rolled out in Southam, where Project OK was founded. Its success will be evaluated with instrumental figures as above. Will include X2 short blocks of delivery to establish Home Ed & Dance for Parkinson’s, both areas of need. In addition, Outdoors work & nature will be explored, offering ‘Move & Mooch,’ which uses walking as a mechanism to softly land in a session on non-stylised dance. This flexible framework of interchangeable provision can then be taken anywhere, adapted to suit its community.
‘Feelings’ Redevelopment. It’s more than OK outdoors too:
Redeveloped in a EYFS setting. Our selected setting is Shrubland Street primary School in the socially deprived area of Leamington Brunswick. Children will feed into the process by watching rehearsal, experimenting with key participation elements, new dynamic design element & exploring healthy emotions, with support from the school’s wellness lead & partner YPEC. Challenging how work is created, this innovative piece will be co made with grassroot level, imperative to inspire this next generation, that they can have/be part of a much-needed stable creative future. In addition to a family invited event at the school, the work will also be presented in Southam to a collective of early years settings. A continual creative feed to where the project was founded is integral to our legacy work. Work will also be performed at Warwick Pursuits, Art in the Park, Hall Green, Creative network/family sharing in central Birmingham, Coventry Cathedral & The Happy Place Festival. Will be open to additional opportunities. Selling pack complete end of summer 2025, ready for outdoor touring, community activity, family health/research events, schools tour & linking with Home Ed network.
OK Pop up’s & Socials:
We will continue our invaluable pop up ‘OK’ socials, which hold a live performative element, time to converse, socialise, discuss, signposting to wellbeing support, in a community centred space. These feed into the development of our work, build interest and support our growing network. Project OK will also be visible in ‘Shop Window Takeovers’ both durational, and at key moments during delivery, both signposting to our work, wellbeing support and in response to activity focus, and community.
OKit’s
A digital wellbeing resource will be designed in collaboration & consultation with education providers, Home Ed, pastoral & health professionals, working within and alongside these sectors. Under ‘Project OK’s’ umbrella of supporting mental health & wellness the resource will involve CPD & dynamic bite sized creative insights, to engage & inspire children. Will have a huge reach.
‘Pigeon’ Nuneaton 2025. Development of ‘Homing’ from GRIT’s Art on The Streets 2024:
The long-lasting impact of 2024 commissioned work homing was evident from community response, local artist involvement, & key stakeholders. The bold and beautiful piece based on the importance of home/what does home mean to you, and the positive effect place has on our mental health, had only just scratched the surface regarding reach, benefit to individuals' wellbeing & exposure to/participation in a piece of innovative work. And the simple, yet global image of ‘pigeon’ gives the work, and connected delivery, huge longevity endless opportunities, offering a creative outlet to some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK, and beyond Pigeon 2025 will include the following groups: Live Well & Dance with Parkinson’s Nuneaton, The Nepalese Community, Warwickshire Young Carers, ALP, NWSLC (Performing & Creative Arts) Saints Nuneaton, and an open call out. Also collaborating with local arts & craft practitioners to support a pigeon inspired arts trail around both green spaces in town centre.
A Creative & Cultural Country:
It simply crept up...underrepresented as a mid-career, working class, recently identifying neurodivergent mother who makes. An instrumental female figure, with a huge creative offering & wealth of experience, but somewhat stuck. Treading water. Change had to happen, and it did, through Project OK. This project will amplify further my true creative voice & reach & put my practice firmly back on the map, for a high-quality community led, creative health practice. It will inform, inspire and most importantly connect communities, health services & the arts sector. Highlight the need for a shared outcome, that being, culture for change. Recent CPD also confirmed my creative direction. This has included ‘Exchange Encounter’ with Spectre through DLG/Fabric, mentoring with In Good Company, Conversations with wellness & inclusion leads at People Dancing & Centre for mental health & wellbeing research at University of Warwick, sharing practice with East Warwickshire Primary Care Network, OAUK National Conference, my role as steering board member for Ascendance, & being unapologetic with my creative voice, known for his bold physical storytelling, & playful fusion of form & genre.
‘I am OK’:
This participatory piece/social activity/experiment, promoting positive mental health & wellness for 12+ (guide) through an intimate ‘two woman show’, superseded all expectations, including our own, during sharing's in 2024, and we only just scratched the surface.
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‘Incredible writing, so clever. Great play on words, so well crafted’
‘Brilliant performance. Moving with you one minute, moved by you the next’
‘Loved the opportunity to belt out a song’
‘The comradery was beautiful. I felt connected to everyone’
‘Love your quirks jar, hug token’s (distanced hugs optional) fabulous’
‘This would work so well as a rural touring offering‘
‘It should be on prescription’
This redevelopment includes not only incredible artistic mentoring but specific support from academic researchers, in the field of social engagement & wellbeing, a clinical psychologist & psychotherapist. This will enable us to fully realise a wellness outcome for all, giving us permission to safely challenge themes, take risk, and break habits. Teetering on the edge of being something uniquely beautiful. The fully developed show will be performed at Brunswick Healthy Living Centre, Southam Clinic, Hall Green Women’s centred group, Coventry Cathedral (Feelings takeover) Southam Library, creative network sharing in Birmingham, Art in the Park & Happy Place Festival. Will be open to additional opportunities. Selling pack complete end of summer 2025, ready for rural touring, community activity & health/research events.
OK Care:
To produce innovative, high-quality work, and programs of sustainable delivery, care needs to be the highest priority, yet it's evident there are still gaps in current systems and models of practice. Don’t get me wrong, some areas have seen huge improvements & pioneering methods, but some of the core fundamentals around base level self-care are still not being met/not accessed and is having a detrimental effect on lives, with the emphasis still on ‘Do More,’ ‘Push Through’ which is morally wrong and having a huge impact on health, wellbeing & mental health. ‘OK Care’ facilitated by Project OK Director Kate Taylor & OK producer & wellness coach Kirsten Tranter, will lead a female identifying led voice to explore why areas of care still appear neglected, and what might an offering look like? Open to ages, 18+, both remote and in person, offering a shared insight into why there is still an overwhelmingly high percentage of burnout, stress induced, and mental health concerns amongst female practitioners? This habitual nature of over productivity, miss use of energy, and flawed framework needs to change. Some may argue this is not gender specific, but through research & data analysis we will begin a conversation with women, which in turn, will inform everyone.
OK Birmingham, we see you:
During this project okay or focus its delivery in and around the area of Hall Green in partnership with a women centred organisation collaborating on their parent & local schools programme, which explores various aspects of health & wellbeing, enabling women to make informed decisions about their health & that of their families. During a block of delivery, we will embed ‘I am OK’s’ themes as a framework of care, including physical exploration, poetry, and vision boards. ‘I am OK will also be presented to the cohort, and place specific health leads. The group will steer how they would like to develop this work and their creative voices with Project OK.We look forward to further collaborations across Hall Green and will seek subsequent partnerships across the city. Producers at Powerhouse for Dance Fabric, are in support of Director Kate’s career developments into creative health work, and Project OK’s body of work. Will explore their ‘Artist Studio Space’ & in addition Hippodrome Creatives rehearsal space offer. Will also look to offer free artist forum/provision, ‘OK Care’ enquiry for regional artists.
Fostering Talent:
Each strand of project OK Foster’s talent, from a community led project framework involving co-made performative work, programmes of delivery, steering groups which guide program delivery and exploration into future developments, to young creative leaders, producers, ambassadors, who shape dance films, digital resource, and professional touring work, and those individuals/professionals we have formed partnerships with, collaboratively they too will develop.
Within our core creative team, we will always make space for personal growth and opportunity, and support ambition. Partner companies and regional artists will have the opportunity to access a strand of FREE CPD & mentorship alongside our delivery, tailored to specific need & aims. Open practice will be offered throughout, keeping Project OK connected to practitioners, their unique skill set, and how we could collaborate or support them. This model of practice continually seeks opportunities to allow everyone involved from participants, artists, audiences & partners, and myself included to evolve, to continue to learn, empowering individuals to reach beyond their potential. In turn the impact of Project OK and my inherent desire to nurture, will not go unnoticed, and this model of practice will continue to inspire.
Photo Credits: Offshoots Photography / Andrew Moore / Destiny Thomson
Talk to us!
We’d love hear about how we support more communities with our work. Regional, national & beyond. Please get in touch.