Borderland Voices

WELCOME	Welcome to Borderland Voices...Click here for our latest Newsletter...	BACKGROUND
updated 1 Feb 2013
Borderland Voices was founded in 1998 in Leek, Staffordshire and currently works across the Staffordshire Moorlands. Our aim is to promote mental health through the arts and to raise public awareness and understanding of mental health issues by delivering accessible arts projects and offering creative space for self-expression within a mutually supportive community.
		A Breath of Fresh Air will be funded by Ecominds, a £7.5million funding scheme run by Mind on behalf of the BIG Lottery Fund. Ecominds involves people with direct experience of mental distress in environmental projects that improve their mental and physical health, and local communities. The project is due to run for a year from April 2011, so look out for further details in February or March 2011.
		Park Art – the view from Haregate is a 12-month project which will start in January 2011. Funded by the Peak District National Park ’s Sustainable Development Fund, Park Art will use the arts to help people, including youngsters in local schools and youth clubs, appreciate the special qualities of the Park. It will include visits from the Park Rangers and trips into the Park for inspiration.
		Land of the Churnet In Nov 2007 Borderland Voices started a new, 2-year project supported by Give it Sum. It follows BV’s successful Rivers of Life Project and, like all BV’s work, aimed to promote mental well-being by bringing out people’s creativity.
		Constellations of the Churnet As part of the Land of the Churnet project, Borderland Voices took part in the Night Stations project with Charles Monkhouse which culminated in our participants having their own constellations drawn across the Staffordshire Roaches.
		Creative Clubs In February 2009 we succeeded in raising funding from Staffordshire County Council (Closing the Gap Fund ) for a nine-month project to deliver a series of arts activities to children living in and around the Haregate estate in Leek, an area of high deprivation.