In 2020, we started work in partnership with community arts venues as a means of widening access to art therapy for children and young people unlikely to take the medical route to find help. This was an important step for Teapot Trust in becoming more accessible in our place and time.

Since then we have developed collaborations with other charities, been commissioned to deliver bespoke art therapy services and encouraged referrals. We have also built research partnerships to create an evidence base for the impact of art therapy as a medical tool.

We worked with 41 partners across the UK to widen access to art therapy:

• Active Schools, East Lothian
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Charity
• Annette Street School, Glasgow
• Beyond Stigma
• CCAA (Children’s Chronic Arthritis Association)
• CHAS (Chrildren’s Hospices Across Scotland
• Central Carers Association, Falkirk
• Children’s Health Scotland
• Craigroyston Primary and Secondary Schools, Edinburgh
• Collingwood Special School and Media Arts Centre, Morpeth
• Dyslexia Scotland
• Feeling Strong, Dundee
• Fostering Network Scotland
• Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity
• Great North Children’s Hospital Charity
• High School of Glasgow
• Keelman’s Way School, Northumberland
• Kidney Kids Scotland
• Kidney Wales
• Kinship Carers Teams Edinburgh
• Lupus UK
• Muscular Dystrophy UK
• Noble’s Hospital, Isle of Man
• North Edinburgh Arts
• Over the Wall charity
• P3 charity
• Parent to Parent Dundee
• Redbridge School, London
• Scottish Network for Arthritis in Children (SNAC)
• Scottish Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology Network
• Tayside CAMHS service
• Teenage Cancer Trust
• The LUNA Project
• The Yard, Edinburgh and Dundee
• Young Scot
• UK Youth
• V&A, Dundee
• WHALE Arts, Edinburgh
• Winston’s Wish
• Edinburgh Young Carers
• Young Scot

I enjoyed being part of the group because I knew other children were struggling like me and it was nice to share the experience.