The Discovery Hub, Co/ Converge, York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York, YO317EX
Manager: Emma McKenzie – Discovery Hub Team Lead. e.mckenzie1@yorksj.ac.uk 07785607771
The Discovery Hub is funded by Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) and is based within Converge (www.yorksj.ac.uk/converge) at York St John University. Converge offer a range of educational courses to people who have lived experience of mental health illness as part of a recovery journey re-claiming skills and identity.
The Discovery Hub supports access to Converge from secondary mental health care services and also uses York St John as a launch pad to community learning and educational opportunities for those wishing to branch access other educational environments across the city.
We are looking for a post graduate intern with training in creative writing to support the development of partnership project working for the Discovery Hub and Converge. The graduate intern will be responsible for supporting and delivering staging ground creative writing classes in the local community that act as a step towards enrolling with Converge creative writing classes. These classes are aimed at building confidence, communication and trust with a view to stepping into new opportunities and maintaining well-being. TEWV are also developing a ‘trauma informed care’ aspect to their delivery of recovery focused work. This involves exploring ‘what has happened to a person’ rather than ‘what is wrong with the person’. There will be the opportunity for a graduate intern to support the creation of a project to explore trauma informed care – primarily in supporting the delivery of a memoir and autobiographical writing course and on a secondary basis making links with Storying Sheffield (www.storyingsheffield.com ) to develop storying workshops across the city.
The current classes that run in partnership with community organisations are:
- Ecotherapy Connect to Nature at St Nicks. St Nicks is a 24 acre nature reserve. The team leader for the Discovery Hub has successfully been running a series of creative writing courses over the last three years that promote connecting to nature for well-being. The Graduate Intern would support the development of this class and support the team leader building an anthology of work for publication with St Nicks.
- St Leonards Creative Writing – Last September we piloted a creative writing class at St Leonards hospice in York supporting people experiencing bereavement to make new connetions and to learn a new skill. The pilot was highly successful. The Graduate Intern would support running this course again with a Converge creative writing tutor Helen Kenwright.
Pending courses due to run in 2019:
- Memoir and autobiographical writing course: A course aimed at exploring personal stories and narratives. This course will also investigate the craft of writing memoir and autobiography and look at the practical and ethical implications of this genre. The graduate intern will support the development and running of the course alongside the Discovery Hub Team Leader.
- Storying York: A set of workshops run from health buildings exploring individual identity through creative writing and promoting Converge and Discovery Hub opportunities as a service to support recovery.
Desirable skills:
- Previous experience of working with Converge either in a paid or voluntary capacity.
- Experience of mental health illness, either through your own lived experience, or in support of others – either personal or through paid employment.
- The ability to support others in an individual capacity during course sessions. In particular helping students who are anxious and nervous about engaging in creative writing classes.
- The ability to engage with community partnership projects to support existing staging ground creative writing classes. This would involve liaising with other community programmes and establishing strong working relationships and developing creative writing opportunities.
- A good working knowledge of existing Converge Creative writing classes so that a smooth transition can be made between classes from the wider community into Converge.
- The ability to support developing individual talent within Converge creative writing opportunities. This may involve aspects such as helping an individual to explore a writing genre, seek out formal higher education opportunities, or to assist in bringing together written work for an anthology.