SME News Northern Enterprise Awards 2023 / 38 Best Community & Arts Centre 2023 - Merseyside Peacefully settled in the heart of Anfield, Liverpool Lighthouse is an arts and community centre that has a unique and special place in the local community. For over 25 years it has been a creative sanctuary for people of all ages – one that has helped to foster togetherness within its local communities. Join us as we explore how Liverpool Lighthouse – a black and female-led organisation – has managed to enrich the surrounding area with its values of creativity, diversity and inclusivity. Established in 1998, Liverpool Lighthouse has spent over two decades inviting the most vulnerable, the city’s artists, and its local communities into a space filled with love and creativity, bringing people together and empowering people to find their voices. Liverpool Lighthouse isn’t just a community centre, it is a place of sanctuary and wellbeing, where people facing all sorts of challenges can find support and be equipped to thrive and flourish. The core mission at Liverpool Lighthouse is to improve the wellbeing of the most vulnerable North Liverpool groups, using art as a medium for its activities and providing practical support to help people meet their immediate needs. However, their goals further extend to supporting underrepresented artists to further their careers and providing high quality arts and cultural experiences to underserved local communities. Combined, these qualities culminate in Liverpool Lighthouse being known for its transformational impact, diverse artistic representation and as a national exemplar for arts for wellbeing practice. To truly understand the necessity of Liverpool Lighthouse’s work, we believe it essential to share some statistics with our readers. Anfield has some of the 0.1% most multiply deprived communities within the UK. As such, local people experience a wide array of disadvantages, from social and economic, to health and educational. This, in turn, has led to over 95% of the 800 people each year participating in Liverpool Lighthouse’s community and youth programmes facing complex challenges and barriers to accessing help and support, leading to poverty, marginalisation and other forms of disadvantage. In response to this, Liverpool Lighthouse has created a safe space that has had a proven track record of supporting individuals to achieve transformational change in their lives and through the art they create, in wider society. The Best for Baby Too programme is a great example of this. It is a theatre project created by a group of refugee mothers to communicate their experiences of NHS maternity services in the asylum system with professionals and decision-makers. This powerful piece of theatre is being incorporated into all future midwifery training in Liverpool, with interest to expand nationwide. This project is helping to address the disparity in maternal mortality rates in the UK, where Black women are 4 times more likely to die when giving birth. As well as evidencing incredible impact on the mental health of the participants, this is an example of art being literally life-saving. Working with refugees and asylum seekers is a core part of the work at Liverpool Lighthouse. They focus on reaching the most vulnerable and socially excluded through their programmes, including people experiencing homelessness, those suffering with mental health difficulties, perinatal women and families, women in addiction, people experiencing food poverty, and young people with SEN and disabilities. Liverpool Lighthouse creates space for artists from backgrounds who typically struggle to break into artistic careers, including Black and ethnically diverse and disabled artists and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Typically routes into artistic careers can be difficult for these artists to access for reasons of financial disadvantage or lack of access to the right networks. Liverpool Lighthouse works to support these artists with space, mentoring and resources to create new work and develop their careers. Their exciting Artists’ Lighthouse project has supported the creation of 3 new shows in 2023. The National Gospel Music Centre at Liverpool Lighthouse is a further expression of their work to support underrepresented artists. It focuses on celebrating the cultural contribution of Black communities and supporting incredible gospel music artists to develop their skills and their audiences. Celebrating diverse culture is where Liverpool Lighthouse thrives and the Liverpool Gospel Music Festival is the centrepiece of the project to see gospel music develop as a genre in the UK to match its recognition and importance in mainland Europe, Africa and the US. Having amassed a crowd of over 3000 from across Liverpool and the UK last year at the inaugural Festival and with over 2 million reached nationwide, 2024’s Festival is looking to build on and grow this incredible success. Liverpool Lighthouse has long since recognised the undeniable impact of equipping people with arts and creativity as a tool to make changes in their own lives. An impact that, for many years, has been changing the lives of people in their local area. Powered by research-driven approaches, partnerships and the strengths of its incredible local community, Liverpool Lighthouse stands as a shining beacon of hope for those for whom life is a struggle. We’re so very pleased to be able to bring attention to what is now an awardwinning community and arts centre. Liverpool Lighthouse promises a place where disadvantaged individuals can come together to create community of brilliant people making change in their own lives and the lives of those around them. Liverpool Lighthouse has been there for over 25 years for those who need it most. For this, no community and arts centre is more deserving of the title of Best Community & Arts Centre 2023 – Merseyside. Contact: Helen Brown Company: Liverpool Lighthouse Limited Web Address: https://www.liverpoollighthouse.com/
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