OUR PROJECTS

Since our launch in 2019, we have involved and inspired more than 500 individuals and worked with organisations including Women's Aid East and Midlothian, East Lothian day centres, Dunbar Dementia Carers Support Group, Heavy Sound CIC, Headway East Lothian, Stepping Out, Capital Theatres, Luminate, Fringe by the Sea, Dementia Friendly East Lothian and Book Week Scotland. We have also held online creative writing sessions for wellbeing for people working in our communities. We were thrilled to have been nominated and shortlisted for the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland's Self Management Awards, Self-Management Through the Arts 2023!

Some of our current and more recent projects:

OUR STORIES

Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund for supporting our latest project Our Stories! We were delighted to again be working on creative projects with Heavy Sound CIC, Stepping Out mental health project, Dunbar Day Centre and Dunbar Dementia Carers Support Group. We also offered free online creative writing for wellbeing sessions for creative practitioners working in the community with some fabulous feedback here! 

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TALES FROM OUR KITCHEN TABLE

We were delighted to be one of 14 projects across Scotland to have been awarded funding to enable us to offer grassroots, community-based support for people affected by dementia. For the past year we have been collaborating on this very special creative project with our friends at Dunbar Dementia Carers Support Group - who we have been lucky to work with lots before - to run a series of interactive, inter-generational workshops on the theme of ‘Tales from Our Kitchen Table’. Stories and recipes gathered from these sessions have now been collated and used to create a follow-up to our very successful ‘Community Cookbook’ printed in 2020, which raised money for the carer group's funds. 'Tales From Our Kitchen Table' is now available to buy locally in Dunbar. This project was funded by the About Dementia, Age Scotland and Scottish Government partnership fund through the ‘Encouraging and Supporting Grassroots Activity Fund'.

 


CREATIVE SESSIONS FUNDED BY THE COMMUNITIES HEALTH AND WELLBEING FUND

Thanks to The Communities Health and Wellbeing Fund (22/23) we have collaborated on creative projects with Dunbar Dementia Carers Support Group and Women's Aid East and Midlothian.

 

THE AMAZON LITERARY PARTNERSHIP

Last year we were awarded a grant to run creative writing workshops with survivors of domestic abuse and will collaborate with Women's Aid East and Midlothian; and creative writing for wellbeing sessions in the community. For this we collaborated with The Picnic Box and Longniddry Sea Swimmers.

 

HEADWAY EAST LOTHIAN 

In 2023 we worked with Headway East Lothian and heard their stories about the cinema and the theatre. We were delighted to produce a digital story for them. Click here to watch.

 

EVERY STORY MATTERS

Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund for supporting our Every Story Matters Project 2022/23! We collaborated on new creative projects with Women's Aid East and Midlothian, Heavy Sound CIC, Stepping Out mental health project, Dunbar Day Centre and Dunbar Dementia Carers Support Group. We also offered creative writing for wellbeing sessions for creative practitioners working in the community. See some of our feedback here.


FRINGE BY THE SEA

For the past two years we have been lucky enough to work with the Fringe by the Sea festival. In 2022, Lorna was appointed as the first ever Storyteller in Residence at the festival, which coincided with Scotland's Year of Stories 2022. She worked closely with Stepping Out mental health project, with young people at Heavy Sound CIC and Dementia Friendly East Lothian. Their work was showcased at the festival in August. She has collaborated again with Stepping Out for this year's festival.

 

SOME FEEDBACK

 

 


Sharing A Story’s aim is to focus on working with groups of people in the community who face loneliness, social isolation, mental-health issues including depression and low self-esteem. Everyone has the ability to be creative, sometimes all that is needed is a bit of encouragement and direction. We are happy to work with groups or individuals and can tailor a programme to suit specific needs. Please get in touch if you have any questions or want to enquire about Sharing A Story running sessions for your own organisations.