Lasting Support Triumphs at Premiere for Connecting Through the Arts

On the 20th of November, Lasting Support was ecstatic to host the premiere screening of our new short documentary film Connecting Through the Arts at Ealing Picturehouse. Amazingly, what once started as a small idea to widen our already existing creative arts programmes has been received with so much kindness.

 

Connecting Through the Arts is a creative arts initiative funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government in collaboration with Ealing Council. Inspired by Gareth Malone’s BAFTA award-winning TV series The Choir, the programme brought together families from Ealing and four community organisations, which included Lasting Support, White City Theatre Project, PARC, and WAPPY, who shared their resources and creativity to produce a unique service that connected people through the arts.

 

Initially created to foster community cohesion through the arts, the project evolved into a powerful documentary tracing how the creative arts can support children and families affected by domestic violence, displacement, and intergenerational trauma, despite its original intention to culminate in a public performance. Our team realised that, over the time spent working on the programme, those children involved benefited much more when their parents were also part of it, which supported our core belief in holistic family healing and connection.

 

The documentary depicts the drama sessions hosted by White City Theatre facilitators Amari Harris and Ella McCarthy at Golf Links Community Centre. We see them work with the children and parents, building their confidence and skills, leading up to a performance that allows both the children and parents to understand one another. It also covers the lived experiences of our service users from Building Bridges and gives their stories a moment to shine. It’s essential that, amongst the positivity, we acknowledge that to use dramatic arts and creative therapies, we must also process trauma and hardship through them.

 

Lasting Support CEO Warda Mohamed tells us that, “what I am most proud of is that both the film and the screening centred on our children. So often, they are the hidden victims, spoken about but not truly seen. Here, the labels and stigma fell away. They were recognised, celebrated, and honoured for being so much more than what happened to them.”

 

We were incredibly thankful that the team from Pink Static Films was willing to record this process and interview the project’s facilitators, staff, and families involved, for a screening once our drama sessions wrapped up. They have created a phenomenal end product with this short documentary film, a real look into the lives of the families we work with through our other programmes, and into how the arts can not only shape the lives of young people and children, but also into the importance of their influence on their futures.

 

The documentary is now available on our YouTube channel for public viewing. We encourage our partners, friends, and community members to access and share the film through this platform to help spread awareness about the transformative power of the arts.

 

We want to give thanks to:

 

 

We’d also like to thank our special guests:

 

 

If you or anyone you know would like to be involved in our creative arts initiatives in the future, please email us at info@lastingsupportservices.com for more information. We are looking to host future events for drama, music, and writing facilitation, as well as community outreach. Your support can help us expand our mission and reach more families in need.