How funding community-led participatory creative projects can shine a light on intersectional stigma

Maeve reflects on the Anti-Stigma Arts fund and how community-led projects can lead the way in tackling stigma.

See Me is Scotland’s national programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination and our Anti-Stigma Arts Fund has just entered its fourth year. The learning for us as an organisation over that time has been huge.

Set up in 2021 to facilitate working with communities which were not well-represented in our work at the time, the Anti-Stigma Arts Fund has become a crucial mechanism for us to understand the nature of intersectional stigma and the methodology we need to tackle it. Even more importantly we can see how, when well supported, participatory creative projects lend themselves particularly well to creating spaces of greater safety where confidence and self-expression can develop alongside increased community connection.

‘For example, one participant developed strong social connections with other participants. Over time she developed confidence to talk freely during sessions, sharing stories that were meaningful to her – sensory aspects of the project – incorporating scent as part of the artwork became a way for her to express herself without needing to refer to the language of the immigration system.’

• Find out more my reading the Maryhill Integration Network Project Report.

Over the last four years, the principles of intersectionality ( Sievwright et al, 2022)[i] have helped us to articulate and refine our approach to all aspects of the fund from promotion to shortlisting. Central to any intersectional approach is a careful reflection of power dynamics at play, such as within decision making processes.

Though impossible to completely remove all hierarchies of power in a relationship between a funder and funded project partner, we have tried to learn more each year about ways to limit this imbalance and ensure that greater control of the projects sits within communities. One example of this is placing the focus and method of evaluation of the project into the hands of the project leads, rather than dictating what will or won’t be accepted as evidence of impact. The additional benefit of this approach is that as an organisation we get to learn things that stand out to the participants and the facilitators rather than what we assume would be important.

‘We are mindful of interim outcomes and how what may look like a very small thing – e.g. a client taking their coat off – can be huge for that individual – evidencing a desire to stay for the first time. Context like this is better presented in observation than in surveys.’

• Rowan Alba Project Report

We also wanted to find ways to ensure that similar principles (for example, understanding and naming the structural causes of oppression and taking a strength-based approach to communities) were guiding the work of the projects we fund so we refined our shortlisting criteria to better understand: Where has the idea for this project come from? Are participants identified and actively asking for the project to take place? What is the relationship between the organisation and the community it works with?

Last year we funded projects led by Maryhill Integration Network, Empower Women for Change, Music Broth, Orkney Blide Trust, Sarah’s Sanctuary and Rowan Alba. Though very different organisations they share an approach which centres and is led by the lived experience of the people they work alongside, each organisation reflects carefully on how power manifests within relationships, and they all have a core aim to build community and capacity with people experiencing multiple forms of oppression.

“This project gave me a voice I never thought I had. It allowed me to express my journey in a way that others could see, understand, and respect.” The final exhibition transformed participants’ stories into powerful public art, gaining recognition for experiences often hidden or silenced, celebrating resilience, and fostering community understanding and inclusivity.

• Empower Women for Changeproject report

The See Me Anti-Stigma Arts Fund is small. Over the last four years we have funded 19 fantastic projects, but over that time, 258 groups and organisations have applied to the fund, and the standard of those applications has been incredibly high. The value of projects like these for participants, organisations and communities cannot be overstated and there is an acute need for sustainable sources of funding for creative interventions that place money and power with community-led groups and organisations.

This opinion forms part of a specially commissioned series by the Health and Social Care Academy which reflects learning and insights from the ‘Developing a picture of creative engagement in anti-stigma work’ report. This research builds on previous work undertaken by the ALLIANCE as part of the series ‘Reducing Stigma, Emphasising Humanity’.

[i] An Expanded Definition of Intersectional Stigma for Public Health Research and Praxis | AJPH | Vol. 112 Issue S4

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