Holding Space: the survey data and the workshop notes

1. London gathering, 15 January 2026

Before the event

22 people responded to the pre-event survey, all confirming attendance.

What are your hopes for attending?

• To learn, to share and to make new connections
• Learning from others, and centering refugee and asylum seeker voices.
• To connect with other creative practitioners and organisations working with refugees and asylum seekers; learn from others’ experiences.
• To gain insight into current thinking and practice around arts and displacement; make new professional contacts.
• To meet like-minded practitioners, share experiences, and potentially form collaborations.
• To explore how creative practices can support mental health in displaced communities and to network with others in this field.
• To learn about integrating creative approaches into mental health support for refugees; meet organizations doing similar work.
• To discover new creative methods to engage displaced communities and to share our project’s outcomes with peers.
• To connect with other professionals in the field and find inspiration for upcoming projects focusing on refugee mental health.
• To meet others, learn about creative mental health interventions, and potentially partner on future projects.
• To understand how others are tackling the intersection of creativity and displacement; find potential collaborators.
• To gather insights that can inform our upcoming arts-and-wellbeing program; network with attendees from various sectors.
• To better understand how the arts can support mental health in displaced populations and to build my professional network in this arena.
• To share our community project’s outcomes, learn from other initiatives, and identify potential collaborators or supporters.
• To experience new ideas in the intersection of arts and mental health, and network with others outside my usual circle.
• To find out about funding opportunities and partners by connecting with others in the field; learn about successful projects elsewhere.
• To gather as much knowledge as possible about creative interventions in refugee mental health to apply in my work; meet like-minded individuals.
• To share experiences working with displaced artists, learn about policy developments, and build lasting connections across sectors.
• To network with practitioners from both arts and health sectors and to bring back new ideas to my organization.
• To discover new perspectives on addressing trauma through art, and identify ways to collaborate nationally.
• To link up with mental health providers interested in creative solutions for refugees; exchange best practices and challenges.
• To meet new contacts, get fresh ideas for integrating art into psychosocial support, and possibly find collaborators for a future project.

Access needs raised in advance

• Comfort breaks.
• None.
• None at present.
• None required.

After the event

Ratings

No respondent rated the event below 4 on either measure.

What did you enjoy?

• The fantastic facilitators and the warmth and openness of the group discussions.
• Chats; Atmosphere; Connections; Amazing energy in room.
• The diverse group of attendees and the collaborative exercises.

Key takeaways

• Chance to connect and re-connect with people I haven’t seen in a long time; renewed motivation.

What could have been improved

• I was slightly unclear on the aim/meaning for the pledge activity - maybe provide more context next time.

Pledges

• This possible socials campaign “I exist because you exist” - highlighting the mutual support in our community.

2. Belfast gathering, 15 May 2025

The pre-conference survey

Seven organisations and practitioners responded in advance, describing what they were working on and what was getting in the way. This is the clearest picture in the whole evaluation of the conditions people are actually working in.

What projects are you currently working on?

• I am currently leading a creative writing workshop series for asylum seekers focusing on personal storytelling. Additionally, working with Voicing the Void on an arts residency project.
• NI Mental Health Arts Festival programme of events - includes exhibitions and workshops involving refugee artists; also a community arts project on displacement narratives.
• Networking with others in the field to start a new arts therapy group for young refugees; early stages and seeking partners.
• Organizing community art sessions in a direct provision center, focusing on visual arts to help with expression; also involved in a theatre project with asylum-seeking youth.
• Running a photography club for displaced youth documenting their journeys; collaborating with a mental health charity to create an exhibition.
• Developing a toolkit for community arts facilitators on trauma-informed practice; just completed a pilot workshop series with refugees in Belfast.
• Tools and contacts to help raise awareness of mental health issues in refugee communities through creative workshops; currently planning a cross-community event.

What are the current challenges in doing this work?

• One of the main challenges is ensuring consistent funding and resources; also building trust with participants who have experienced trauma takes time.
• Small team. Limited funding. No office/building - everything is remote or in borrowed spaces. Hard to reach those without internet access.
• Lack of funding and difficulty finding qualified multilingual therapists; also need more community awareness about our programs.
• Emotional burnout among facilitators, difficulty in measuring impact in the short term, and limited funding for art supplies.
• Need for more mental health professionals to guide the art activities; funding for equipment; engaging participants consistently when they face unstable living situations.
• Ensuring cultural sensitivity and relevance of activities; evaluating impact in a rigorous way to satisfy funders.
• Gaining trust from community leaders to support these initiatives; training volunteers adequately in trauma-informed approaches; limited resources.

What would success look like as a result of the conference?

• Success would mean fostering meaningful discussions that highlight the power of art in healing and lead to ongoing collaboration beyond the conference.
• Greater awareness & connectivity of what organisations serve refugee communities; concrete plans formed among attendees to collaborate on mental health initiatives.
• Networking with others (potential collaborators or mentors) and possibly identifying funding sources or supporters.
• Refugee and asylum seeker community feeling valued and respected; concrete commitments from larger institutions to support our work.
• Success would look like connecting with other individuals and groups to form a support network; learning best practices that we can adopt locally.
• Networking Opportunities: Building connections between organizations and individuals; gaining insights that shape our toolkit to be more effective.
• It would be a great success if people find out more about organizations like ours and we establish at least one new partnership or funding lead from the conference.

Anything else you'd like to add?

• I believe in the transformative power of storytelling; excited to share our work.
• There is quite a bit of activity across Ireland addressing these issues - hope this conference links us up better.

What the Belfast responses show. Every single respondent named funding as a constraint. Four named small teams or lack of capacity. Three named the difficulty of building trust with people who have experienced trauma, and the time that takes. Two named the absence of a physical space to work in. One named difficulty reaching people without internet access.

These are the material conditions underneath every finding in the evaluation.

3. Bradford conference, November 2025

What did you enjoy most?

• Sharing of good practice, compassionate vibe, and meeting new people
• First keynote and panel
• Chatting to like-minded people about what they do and what they are passionate about
• Meeting new people
• The accessibility!! I’m deaf and it was great having subs/BSL
• Networking time

What could be improved?

• More creativity - get people moving (dance!), think more creatively about panels and discussion so people aren’t spending most of the day sitting and listening. Discussion was great but participation could also include some gentle movement, drawing, experiencing a project etc.
• More events like this
• More focussed afternoon
• More input from people with lived experience and representation from policy makers
• Acoustics for table discussions, also I thought the table groups were too big for productive conversation
• More voices of actual asylum seekers

What would help you most in enacting anything new you've learned?

• Connections/support
• Finances to support
• More networking
• Joined up thinking and more action from the ‘top’ down in terms of mental health care
• Contact details of participants
• Making time to reflect and put some meetings in with key people
• Further opportunities for interaction with others in the space

Written feedback left on paper

• Paper feedback I am so happy with this but I would like if we do more active with refugee peoples
• Paper feedback Some interesting speakers but I would have liked a more interactive approach with creative activities & to hear more from sanctuary seekers and their experiences
• Paper feedback Wonderful session definitely worth the long journey. Thank you for a well organized event. Would have been great to have more sanctuary seeking people to lead and talk with possibly.
• Paper feedback Some very interesting & stimulating speakers & some good networking. Too much sitting & listening tho! I found the sound quite difficult - big acoustic which made it difficult & the break out conversations would have been better in smaller groups/tables, it was difficult to hear people across the table and have meaningful conversations
• Paper feedback Next time, ask everybody who works in sector to bring a participant with lived experience with them
• Paper feedback It would have been good to share creative activities they do that are effective, so we leave with new ideas for things to do in our work
• Paper feedback More resources to support access to language provision needed to better support the wellbeing of people seeking sanctuary in my setting
• Paper feedback In particular, loved hearing from Bradford based orgs and people. Important to get together at this moment in time.
• Paper feedback Thank you for the live subtitling and signing!! So useful and made me feel included as a deaf person 😊
• Paper feedback Good discussions. Trust and consistency key, great day, thanks. Suggestion for next time: introduce all organisations, everyone brings a refugee with them, less words and more arts/creativity/singing, focus on sharing practical things that help across organisations
• Didn’t learn as much as I had hoped about supporting people seeking sanctuary through arts/creativity. Too much talking & intellectualising, why wasn’t art/music used to explore the themes?
• Key Themes and Frequently Mentioned Points: ● Networking and Connection: A recurring theme across events is the desire to connect with others in the field. Many participants hoped to “make new connections” and valued the networking opportunities. In post-event feedback, attendees frequently cited meeting new people and chatting with like-minded professionals as highlights of the events. Several saw success as “building connections between organizations and individuals” and wanted “contact details of participants” for future collaboration. ● Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Participants commonly expressed hopes of learning from others and sharing best practices. Phrases like “to learn, to share” and “to gain insight into current thinking and practice” were prevalent in pre-event surveys. Attendees appreciated hearing about what others are doing - for example, they enjoyed “sharing of good practice” during the conference and wanted to “find out more about organizations like ours.” ● Challenges - Funding and Resources: A major challenge mentioned (especially in the Belfast pre-event survey) is the lack of funding and resources. Multiple respondents explicitly noted “limited funding” , “lack of funding” , or needing “finances to support” their work. Securing resources (like funding for staff, space, or materials) was identified as crucial for enacting new ideas and sustaining projects, as well as a support needed to implement learnings from the conference. ● Need for More Creative and Interactive Approaches: In the conference feedback, many suggested making future sessions more interactive and engaging. One detailed suggestion was to incorporate movement, art-making, or dance to avoid “spending most of the day sitting and listening.” Several respondents wished for “more creativity” in format and “more arts/creativity…focus on sharing practical things.” This indicates participants value experiential learning and creative engagement, not just panel talks. ● Inclusion of Lived-Experience Voices: A frequent recommendation was to involve more people with lived experience of displacement. Feedback comments like “more voices of actual asylum seekers” and suggestions to “ask everyone who works in the sector to bring a participant with lived experience” highlight a desire for events to elevate refugee/asylum-seeker perspectives. Attendees felt the discussion would be richer and more authentic with greater representation from sanctuary-seekers themselves. ● Accessibility and Inclusion Efforts: Accessibility was noted positively - for instance, a deaf participant praised the “live subtitling and signing” as making them feel included. The warm, “compassionate vibe” of events and efforts to accommodate needs (e.g. asking about access requirements pre-event) were appreciated. At the same time, a few saw room for improvement in inclusivity, such as providing “access to language provision” for non-English speakers. ● Desire for Continued Engagement: Participants frequently expressed that they want events like these to continue. There were calls for “more events like this” and “further opportunities for interaction with others in the space.” This suggests that attendees found value in these gatherings and are looking for sustained networks or follow-up meetings to maintain momentum built during the events. ● Awareness and Advocacy: A theme in responses (especially pre-event hopes and definitions of success) is raising broader awareness of the issues at hand. Respondents wanted “greater awareness…of what organisations serve refugee communities” and hoped the conferences would influence “joined up thinking and action from the ‘top’ down in mental health care.” There is an advocacy element - attendees hoped these events would lead to concrete actions, increased visibility, and policy support for arts and mental health initiatives in displaced communities. Overall, the compiled responses reflect a passionate community of practitioners and stakeholders who are eager to learn from each other, collaborate, and amplify the impact of creative approaches to displacement and mental health. Common needs include better funding, stronger networks, and more inclusion of refugee voices. Participants found the convenings valuable, especially for networking and inspiration, and offered constructive feedback to make future events even more engaging and representative.

4. Creativity, Displacement and Mental Health webinar, April 2025

34 people attended. These are the organisations respondents named when signing up, published because the range is itself a finding: NHS trusts, universities, museums, theatres, refugee services and independent practitioners in one room.

• 20 Stories High
• Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales
• Anitagarwal Studio
• ArtReach
• Artist / Art Therapist
• British Red Cross
• CUH Arts
• City of Sanctuary
• Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre
• Derby Theatre
• Freelance
• GP Vulnerable Adults Service
• Healing Focus
• Independent researcher
• Manchester Metropolitan University
• Mtamakina CIC
• Music Action International
• NSFT
• Shanti Project
• Sheffield Hallam University
• St Andrew Refugees Services
• Swansea City of Sanctuary
• The Elizabeth Casson Trust
• The S.P.A. (Supporting People Through Arts)
• University of Exeter
• University of Glasgow
• University of Kent
• independent

28 named organisations, plus respondents registering as freelance or independent.

5. Workshop notes, transcribed

Transcribed from flip-charts and participant notes. These are the conversations that produced the evaluation's findings about impact and evaluation.

Core themes from the conversation

Embodied impact

• Dis-embodied metrics versus embodied experience
• Giving value to somatic impact
• The importance of emotions, feelings and lived experience
• Recognising social health
• Understanding that not everything that counts can be counted

Impact and evaluation

• Impact should be co-created
• The need for shared outcomes frameworks
• Alternative evaluation methods: Ripple Effect Mapping, story sharing, creative documentation through video, images and voice recordings
• Questioning traditional impact models: are they extractive? Are they intrusive?

The questions participants kept returning to

• Impact for whom? The individual, the group, or the organisation?
• What difference does it make?
• Who is the story really for?
• Do participants feel comfortable sharing their experiences?

Challenges in measuring impact

Structural

• Huge pressure on grassroots organisations
• Lack of capacity within charities
• Funding expectations requiring evidence
• Difficulty demonstrating impact in complex relational work

Conceptual

• Some evaluation methods are extractive
• Case studies may simplify journeys, present non-authentic solutions, and reduce complex experiences

Alternative approaches participants proposed

Reflective practice. Asking "how does it feel?" Observing emotions, non-verbal communication, and the atmosphere in the room.

Creative methods. Photographs, video, voice recordings, storytelling, journey-based documentation.

Learning-based approaches. Focus on process rather than only outcomes. Value what happens in the room. Understand what value means, and for whom.

Relational practices that create impact

• Check-ins and check-outs
• Partnership and collaboration
• Story sharing
• Transparency
• Creative documentation
• Collective reflection

Small actions can have huge relational impacts.

The Yes / No framework

Participants built this together. It is the most direct statement in the evaluation of what the field wants more of and less of.

Yes, what we move towards

Ways of working: participant-led processes · lived experience at all levels · co-production · collaboration · interdisciplinary partnerships · slow work · taking risks · being open

Community values: listening · community takeovers · social advocacy and change-making · being part of the community · flexibility · space to experiment

Support structures: long-term funding · training and facilitator support · transparency throughout programmes · proper resourcing for grassroots work · continuity and longevity of programmes

No, what we move away from

Harmful structures: extraction · bureaucracy · short-term projects · outcome-driven systems · hierarchical structures · policy-led rather than community-led work · unrealistic funder expectations

Harmful practices: tokenism · non-humanistic approaches · overwhelming workloads · assumptions-based practice · risk avoidance and lack of courage · lack of boundaries · the wrong type of resilience, leading to burnout

6. The care exercise

Two questions were put to the room on flip-charts. The answers are published in full because the pattern in them is the finding.

What helps me feel supported in a new space?

• A warm environment
• Friendly Faces
• A moment of pause. Collectively to ground in a Space
• Knowing whose in the room
• Seeing someone who looks like me?! (global majority)
• Safety
• Food & drink - I’m always in a rush & then when I finally get there I realise I’m thirsty & hungry, need eat time 🙂
• People! - Welcoming smile 🙂
• - Basic/useful info about the place
• A friendly face
• A brew
• Music
• A messy space where there are things to talk about also thoughtful refreshments
• Information ahead of time - directions + schedule
• A quiet space
• Fidget toys
• Gender-neutral toilets
• Plenty of breaks built in to arts and crafts
• I think more than others they need to make relationships with others. Good welcoming
• Meaningful conversations
• Unmasking
• Small group
• Openness
• What is being said in the space
• Eye contact
• Trust
• Respect my version of being present
• Being brought in by someone
• Food
• Space left /given
• to share without pressure
• Someone smiling back at me
• A friendly face 🙂
• Refreshments (warm drinks)
• Respect
• Choice
• 1- Being approached
• 2- Being acknowledged
• Food/provisions to keep me fueled!
• Introductions - not awkward networking
• Smiles and info right from the outset
• Welcome and acceptance and a non-judgemental atmosphere
• Open Welcome
• & Food
• No pressure to speak / share until you’re ready
• Prompts to make connections/help with social anxiety
• Smiles
• Gentle interactions
• Refreshments
• Knowing what is about to happen
• …and what is expected of me
• a welcoming environment
• & refreshments
• A welcoming face and not being expected to approach people I don't know to start a conversation
• A familiar face
• Friendly person willing to talk to people

What's one act of care I give to others?

• Being an ear to listen to
• Giving time + attention - listening
• Smile
• Focus
• & Time <3
• Listen
• Support
• Ally
• Friend
• Hugs
• Listening
• Asking how people are
• Allowing space to share without right or wrong
• I take time to listen
• Slowing down to connect
• Remembering
• & Standing up for them afterwards
• Time to listen
• A hug
• A smile
• Listen and leave space for silence
• Hospitality + a listening ear
• Hear if they share
• I like to smile & offer a compliment
• Honesty
• Smiles
• listening …
• Ask what people might need
• Attempt to make a space comfortable
• Furniture
• Refreshments
• Creative activities
• Flexibility
• A caring message
• Flowers
• Hugs if people approach
• Food & drink
• Homemade treats
• Patient + deep listening
• Being unapologetically myself (full of colour)
• Being there
• Cooking
• Making food/meals
• Active listening and giving people space to think
• Sharing a meal/tea
• Making tea
• I memorise how people prefer their tea
• Tea, coffee
• Time
• Check-ins
• A big wholesome smile
• Time to hear about someone story
• I listen to people
• Offering food
• I work with these people sometime - just a hot persian tea, make home and remember their home and family
• Finding common ground

What these two lists show. The single most frequent answer to both questions is listening. After that: food and drink, a smile, time, and a friendly face.

Nobody named a programme, a framework or an intervention. The care people said they gave, and the care people said they needed, was almost entirely made of attention, warmth and refreshments.

That is worth setting beside the evaluation's argument about metrics. None of it would appear in a monitoring return.

These responses are anonymous. Organisation names appear only where a respondent volunteered one. This material describes real people's experiences of displacement and of mental ill health. Please cite with care.

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