The Kirkham Thrives programme ran from July 2024 and was recently completed at a wonderful culmination event held in the town centre on the 21st June 2025. Working with a wide range of community groups we introduced four professional artists and several local experts to deliver regular creative health workshops across the year.
During the programme we supported seven community groups to continue to deliver and grow their creative health offers: these included the Creative Heritage Explorers, Grow Kirkham & Wesham, Space for Nature, Friends of Kirkham Library, The Poetry Group, the Men’s Shed and Stitch Together Kirkham.
To enable ownership of the programme, knowledge sharing and wider connectivity between the groups, we facilitated five support sessions for volunteer group leaders to come together, share knowledge and problem solve. Forty two people attended three trips to heritage and cultural sites which included Queen Street Mill Museum in Burnley in December, Lancashire Archives, Preston in February and the Homegrown – Homespun project a pioneering regenerative fashion initiative in Blackburn in May.
Throughout the year we co-produced the programme with group leaders, which not only strengthened volunteer knowledge but also enabled a greater understanding of the importance of the work collectively offered to the community by the groups.
The combination of support, learning and creative opportunity led to the successful delivery of A Culture of Kindness (a creative health and wellbeing festival) held in Kirkham’s Market Square and Saint Michael’s Church on 21st June 2025. This event was delivered in partnership with Kirkham Cultural Consortium and Kirkham Town Council and was attended by approximately 185 people. During this event we launched a new book Kirkham Thrives about the creative health and heritage of the area, a new Green Pages flyer promoting a total of 16 groups working to support community wellbeing in the town and participants created a wonderful exhibition of their artworks, copies of which are linked below:
Kirkham Thrives Booklet –
Green Pages Flyer –