Like many grassroots charities, we work to support the wellbeing of our communities – celebrating every unique individual and inviting them into our musical spaces to connect with others, increase confidence and feel accepted without judgement.
Our music facilitators give so much energy to their work, remaining generous and enthusiastic every step of the way.
Behind the scenes, our admin team work diligently against the challenging funding climate with determination to keep the work sustainable and thriving.
We all work in the community arts sector because we feel passionate about the life-changing impact music can have on people and their wider communities.
However the rate of burnout in our sector is high. Working against a rising tide of funding rejections and supporting community members who are struggling with major life issues can take its toll on the wellbeing of our staff.
For this reason, here at Soundcastle, we have made wellbeing at work our top priority in an effort to support our team to thrive in their working lives.
1- Our focus is to maintain and promote a workplace culture which keeps wellbeing at the heart of Soundcastle - based on trust, support, confidentiality and mutual respect.
2- In addition to this, we have developed a trauma-informed practice framework which runs consistently throughout Soundcastle to support our team as they support our communities.
3- We started the journey by engaging in a consultation process across our whole staff team - ensuring that their voices were heard and their ideas incorporated as we brought in changes across the charity.
4- With a focus on clear channels of communication, job security, regular CPD, team resilience, healthy professional boundaries and across the board training in Mental Health First Aid, we are feeling stronger than ever before.
Everything we do is with the ripple effect in mind and our mission is to increase wellbeing across the arts sector, beyond Soundcastle. We have now trained 143 arts professionals in Mental Health First Aid and we offer consultancy to organisations in developing their own bespoke Wellbeing Agendas.
In order to support our communities, we as arts professionals need and deserve to be well. Let's work together to value our practitioners' wellbeing and maintain a thriving, resilient and ever-determined community arts workforce!
