Untitled - Literature Wales

The Welsh AcademyAnnual Report27Literature and HealthcareAcademi works with a number oforganisations and agencies for whom thearts can help clients talk about – write about– ideas which can be hard to form. Academi’score concern is the promotion of literaturebut for many groups literature itself is a pathto new confidence and the articulation ofdifficult things.Special schools such as Ysgol Penmaesuse writers to help pupils say what theyare thinking. Newport Mind works regularlywith Graham Hartill, who is one of a numberof authors with extensive experience inhealthcare and therapy writing. BrionyGoffin’s ongoing workshops at Whitchurchcontinued to help clients “to expressthemselves and feel more confident to dothis”. Arts Care in Carmarthen worked withDamian George, who led writing workshopswith a number of mental health self-helpgroups in the county. Academi’s long-runningrelationship with Parc Prison in Bridgend isconcerned with helping clients for whom theformalities of literary structure may be a setof new skills. Cultural disadvantage has beenidentified as one of the factors involved inyoung offending. At Parc, Anita Flowers andPhil Cope led an ambitious set of sessionstaking Wales and the Spanish Civil War as astarting point. Academi’s prisons programme– noted elsewhere – will be developing thiswork in coming years.Healthcare agencies value the buzz whichsuch an experience can give their clients- perhaps the courage to read a poemto a small audience or to have a piece ofwriting in an anthology. Often it is the simpleperformance of a piece of writing to a peergroupaudience which is simultaneouslydifficult and liberating.Academi continued to work with DisabilityArts Cymru and to value the professionalexperience which they can offer.TrainingTraining projects run by the Academi coverin-house staff development opportunitiesas well as public events to help writerswith various aspects of the literary world.Academi seeks to ensure that new andexisting staff are aware of good practiceand new developments in the areas ofHealth and Safety (including First Aid andpersonnel matters), IT, and the effectiveuse of contemporary technologies, financialprocedures and general arts administrationincluding marketing. The purpose of stafftraining is to maintain and improve theAcademi’s delivery of services and toprovide continuing professionaldevelopment for staff.In addition to the subjects listed abovemodules have also been run on marketingand promotion and legacy matters.Additionally Academi has enabled staffto pursue Welsh language courses whereappropriate. Academi staff contribute today schools and conferences throughoutWales and further afield, sharing our ownknowledge as well as keeping up-to-dateon developments elsewhere.Collaboration with key agencies such asDisability Arts Cymru, Arts Care, the prisonservice, Bazm-e-Adab and the ArabicCultural Society ensures that Academican provide effective support in areaswhere there are not trained professionalson the staff.As this Report records, more and moreorganisations are working with Academito provide an extensive scope of literatureprogramming and information services –not just the how of writing but the wholefield which surrounds literature and literaturedevelopment. Writers in schools, for example,provide a crucial role in training teachersin the teaching of creative writing and thiswork is as central as the work with the pupilsthemselves. Professional writers on Academi’sWriters of Wales lists have an extraordinaryamount of connected knowledge and deliverworkshops and lectures throughout the year.As a partner, Academi has now joinedliteraturetraining, the UK trainingco-ordinator for the literary world.