A national partnership to tackle health inequalities in coastal communities
Coastal Community & Creative Health is a three year project (2024-27) funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s ‘Mobilising community assets to tackle health inequalities’ programme.
The project is based in three coastal areas with poor health in different regions of England: Blackpool, Hastings and Weston-super-Mare. We will unite a range of stakeholders and community members to generate an evidence-based plan to support cross-sector collaboration to tackle health inequalities. Our focus is three key areas identified by our communities:
- young people’s mental health and wellbeing
- drug and alcohol (substance) use
- serious illness and bereavement
Our aims
- To generate evidence and resources to improve mental health in our focus areas by enhancing and widening access to community assets
- To enhance the skills and knowledge of people working with our communities to tackle mental health and wellbeing inequalities through community assets
- To create a model of collaborative working across sectors and with communities which uses community assets to tackle inequalities in coastal towns
Blackpool, Hastings and Weston-super-Mare
Why coastal communities?
As the Chief Medical Officer’s 2021 report demonstrates, coastal communities face significant challenges and experience some of the worst health outcomes and inequalities in the country. Poverty, poor housing, limited opportunities and a low-wage economy in coastal towns also result in lower life expectancy and higher rates of major diseases, including poor mental health, compared to inland neighbours. Meanwhile health services are overstretched.
Bringing stakeholders together
Community and creative health assets such as arts and culture organisations have the potential to improve lives. New legislation encourages better integration between the NHS, local councils, and other strategic partners like the voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, but the complexity and diversity of the ecosystem make this a challenging task. Integrated Care Systems aim to incorporate community assets with preventative interventions and health and social care. However, inter-sector differences in objectives, structure and culture can complicate collaboration. We need to understand how these stakeholders can come together to improve people’s health.
Benefitting coastal communities
This project has been designed with people who live in coastal communities or work in organisations serving them. It will benefit these groups by:
- generating knowledge, resources and opportunities
- fostering meaningful partnerships
The plan we create will inform council and other organisations’ policies and activities for creating community-based services. It will help ensure that money allocated to improve wellbeing in coastal communities is well-spent.