Dacorum & St Albans

Update from Dacorum and St Albans early help services:-

Colourful Minds

Colourful Minds are delighted to announce that applications are now open for the next Colourful Minds creative therapy and wellbeing course, which will start in March and run for 24 weeks, plus a taster session.  The course is free for adults aged 18+ living in Dacorum with mild to moderate mental health conditions, such as anxiety and stress or due to isolation.

We have previously run successful 12 week courses on Zoom and we are now trialling a 24 week course. This aims to further improve wellbeing outcomes of those that attend and is in response to feedback and evaluation. The course is funded by Dacorum Borough Council, and delivered by a qualified Art Therapist from Herts Inclusive Theatre (HIT).

A taster session will be held on Zoom on Friday 4^th March from 10.30-12.30pm – a chance for applicants to find out if the course is right for them.

This will be followed by a 24 week course on Zoom, running from Friday 18^th March until Friday 14^th October.
(there will breaks for Easter holidays, the Jubilee bank holiday and the month of August).

The sessions will provide an opportunity to explore creative art in a supportive and confidential group setting. No experience is needed to take part and everyone is welcome. Applications are via referral from a GP, health professional or a support agency/worker.

Please contact kerry@hit-theatre.org.uk for an application and referral form. For details you can also visit www.dacorum.gov.uk/colourfulminds .

Dacorum Healthy Hub

The Healthy Hub have a very useful newsletter - sign up to get your copy here:- Healthly Hub Sign Up - Dacorum Borough Council

Workshops for young people this autumn – last year Dacorum District Council planned to run a Beatboxing Project for young people that had to be cancelled due to COVID. We are now looking at running a few workshops with the same artists this autumn, who run a very successful Beatboxing Academy in South London. The workshops may not be Beatboxing (the nature of this is not particularly COVID-safe due to the spitting involved!), however possibly rapping or music/performance related.  If you have a group of young people who may benefit from these workshops and working with these brilliant South London artists, please get in touch. We are also looking to deliver these as pilot workshops for a possible larger project at a later date, in consultation with the young people taking part: Email annie.smith@dacorum.gov.uk

DSPL 8 run a number of courses for parents, carers and professionals. Click here to see a list of the current available courses, together with details of how to sign up. 

Herts Mind Network

• Herts Mind Network are continuing to provide essential mental health support in Hertfordshire by adapting our services to best protect our clients, carers, volunteers and staff. Our Wellbeing Centres are open and staff teams are also providing support through phone, Skype and online provision. Please get in touch with us on 02037 273600 if you would like more information about our service provision or visit our websites (www.hertsmindnetwork.org and www.hertsmindnetworkcyp.org).
• Please note the Spot the Signs & Emotional Wellbeing project can also offer bespoke sessions that may have a cost to them. If the sessions on our Training & Workshops don’t meet your audiences need, get in touch and we can have a chat about how we can potentially meet the need you’ve identified in a particular school or area for example.
• The ‘Young people’s online hangout for YP aged 15+’ is currently no longer running as it was felt this met a need for young people who were unable to connect f2f during the lockdowns. Should a need for this service re-emerge, it’s likely we will reinstate this.

Family Centre Service

You can view the Family Support Service leaflet for professionals here