Poetry for Wellbeing Workshop provides a safe space for all, with a special welcome to anyone experiencing mental health worries . This is a writing workshop, where you’ll be introduced to the pleasures of writing poetry and, if you’re up for it, sharing your poems with others in a ‘workshop’ setting. Convened by an experienced workshop leader, it’s for complete beginners as well as those who have written poetry for a long time. You won’t be asked to write directly about your mental health, or difficult or traumatic experiences, but to write about anything that interests you. The workshop is about expressing yourself and exploring how writing can support your health if given a dedicated space of a couple of hours each week.

To help us find out more about poetry and mental health, we’ll ask you to track your mood over the course of the workshop using a mobile app which we’re developing to help people keep track of their health journey. The workshops are funded by University of Plymouth in partnership with the Wolseley Trust’s Healthy Futures ‘Social Prescribing’ unit. Entry is free as all costs are covered with the support of Wolseley Trust and the University of Plymouth.

To sign up, or ask any questions, please feel free to contact:

PRIMARY CONTACT: Russ Evans, Project convenor, Russell.evans@plymouth.ac.uk

Mélisande Fitzsimons, Poetry workshop Lead. melisandef@yahoo.co.uk

Anthony Caleshu, Principal Lead for ‘Social Prescribing Poetry’ project, Anthony.caleshu@plymouth.ac.uk

Joe Harman, Healthy Futures Service (Social Prescribing), Wolseley Trust, joeharman@wolseleytrust. org