Children’s Mental Health Week 2023

We delivered two creative workshops for families to mark Children’s Mental Health Week. We joined The Friends of Rice Lane Rec and The Bluecoat to make positive affirmation badges and create a mindful picture to inspire positivity. We also shared tips on improving well-being, from reading for pleasure to enjoying scree-free time outdoors.

An affirmation is a positive phrase that children can use to feel more confident and resilient with any challenges they may need to overcome.

Thank you to the Liverpool ONE Foundation and the Community Foundation for Merseyside for continuing to support our work to support our work with children and families.

2022: A Year In Review

2022 has been a big year for us; we’ve grown from a start-up to an established social business working in more spaces with even more people.

So, we thought we’d share with you our 2022 round-up…

• We created 1440 free places for families to read, play games and make crafts at our weekly Story Box sessions across three community venues.

• We hosted 5 Reading Folk Book Clubs for parents.

• We created an International Women’s Day screen display at the Museum of Liverpool with Skywriters Ltd.

• We organised six community clean-ups of Thirlmere Park working with GoodGym Liverpool and planted a wildflower meadow with children from All Saints Primary School and Scouse Flowerhouse.

• Our 2022 Book Club read Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends; The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper, Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett and No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood.

• In the Spring, we brought our creative pop-up to 14 community spaces over the Easter break and Whit half-term. We read, played games and made lots of spring crafts!

• In June, we launched Writing for the Soul, with Square Pegs exploring memoir writing with seven wonderful writers.

• We had our busiest summer this year; we visited over 20 organisations bringing lots of stories, games and crafts with us. As well as hosting our Summer Story Box sessions for children under 11 and their grown-ups!

• We had a Spooktacular October half-term, bringing The Story Box at Hallowe’en to libraries, youth clubs and community centres across the city.

• At the end of November, we hosted a placard-making workshop with GFS England & Wales. 60 girls spent the afternoon talking about the issues they cared about and then made their own powerful posters.

• To end the year we hosted 10 magical Story Box at Christmas events as well as Christmas Party for Babies under-1 and gifted over 100 books to celebrate the season; with the help of the amazing FACTCO.

• If you would like to support our work in 2023, you can donate here.

The Story Box at Christmas 2022

On Sunday 11 December, families from across Liverpool came together to celebrate the whole Christmas season at a very special Story Box event in SARA Hall.

Thanks Liverpool ONE Foundation!

We’re delighted to share that the Liverpool ONE Foundation has awarded Creative Spaces Co. funding to bring The Story Box to spaces across Liverpool!

The Story Box comes in three sizes, weekly sessions for under-5s, special events for children under 11 and a book club for 8-11-year-olds.

We’re currently delivering weekly sessions for under-5s in Toxteth Library, The Old Library and Walton Life Rooms - families can book their free places here. Our under-11s sessions take place every half-term and in the summer holidays!

Creative Spaces Co. Director Rachael O’Byrne said, “We’re proud to work in libraries, parks, community centres and more, bringing books to life through interactive storytelling, games and crafts for children and their families. The funding from the Liverpool ONE Foundation, delivered through the Community Foundation for Merseyside, is transformative for our organisation and will enable us to continue our exciting work across Liverpool City Region.”

Celebrating International Women's Day 2022

To mark this year’s International Women’s Day on 8th March Creative Spaces Co. and Skywriters Ltd have created a screen display at the Museum of Liverpool to highlight the role women have played in Liverpool.

Resistance: A brief history of Liverpool told through the activism of 10 women, received over 50 nominations from the public, spanning the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. After careful consideration here is our list of 10 women who have helped shape Liverpool and beyond.

Painting by George Frederic Watts, 1894

Josephine Butler
Josephine was a nineteenth century feminist who campaigned for women’s suffrage, age of consent laws and against child exploitation.

Image taken from the BBC’s 1995 Documentary series, Heart of the Matter

Petrona Lashley
Petrona was a community activist elected as Councillor for Granby Ward in L8. She was Deputy Lord Mayor and would have become Liverpool’s first black Lord Mayor in 1994, but her nomination was blocked as result of institutional racism and misogyny.

Photograph, Liverpool Echo 2012

Anne Williams
Anne was a campaigner for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, in which 97 Liverpool football fans were unlawfully killed at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield including her 15-year-old son Kevin Williams.

Photograph, Liverpool Echo 2012

Sheila Coleman
A leading member of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign and Trade Union activist. Sheila campaigned for justice to be brought to the victims and survivors of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.

Photograph, Liverpool Echo 2019

Claire Dove
Claire was a pioneering member of Liverpool Black sisters and led the Blackburne House Group, one of the country’s leading education centres for women – for 35 years.  Through her work she has empowered thousands of women through education and training.

Photograph, Liverpool Echo 2012

Dr. Gee Walker
Following the racist murder of her son Anthony Walker in 2005 Gee established a foundation to support victims and survivors of hate crime as well as working to build safer, stronger, thriving places to live.

Photograph, Pride in Liverpool Twitter, 2018 [Lucy centre, holding award]

Lucy Day
Volunteer and Chair of the Liverpool Pride Board from 2014-2018, Lucy played a key role in organising the march and event campaigning for LGBT+ equality in Liverpool and beyond.

Photograph, An Hour for Others website [Gill Watkins left]

Gill Watkins
Following a serious car accident and surviving an abusive relationship, Gill used her lived experience to co-found the charity An Hour For Others, which works to build better communities and inspire positive change across Liverpool.

Photograph TUC North West Twitter, 2021

Janet Bennett
Janet was an educator and active Trade Union activist. She was a ubiquitous presence at rallies, marches, and protests for progressive causes, instantly recognisable due to her red bandana and badges.

Photograph for The Post by Dani Cole, 2022

Caroline Grant
Director of Policy and Development at Liverpool Domestic Abuse Service, Caroline has supported thousands of victims and survivors and campaigns for an end to male violence against women and children.

The display by Creative Spaces Co. and Skywriters Ltd. seeks to inspire women and girls to make a change in their communities, places of education and workplaces by telling the stories of activists who have campaigned to enact change across the city and beyond.

Natalie Denny is the force behind Skywriters, a creative education initiative. Her roles include writer, activist, tutor, and content lead for Anthony Walker Foundation. Natalie is currently represented by Chloe Seager at Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV and Film Agency. 

Natalie is chair of The Period Project Merseyside, a voluntary led initiative providing women and people who have periods with menstrual items and campaigning to #EndPeriodPoverty and co-founder of The Goddess Projects, an organisation with the mission to empower, inspire and assist Black women and women of colour to develop and achieve in their communities. 

Natalie said, “This display is a fantastic opportunity to highlight, celebrate and honour some of the amazing grassroots women activists and projects in our city for IWD2022.”

Rachael O’Byrne is the founder of Creative Spaces Co. which works to build stronger communities, improve people’s health, and create more active citizens.

Rachael is a feminist activist who has helped organise Liverpool’s Reclaim the Night March campaigning for an end to violence against women. And is also a volunteer at Walton Vale Community Shop, working to tackle food poverty and economic inequality.

Rachael added “Liverpool has a rich social and political history, with women activists leading the way in some of the most important political moments of the last few centuries that has radically changed Liverpool and beyond. We wanted to share their stories of resistance and in doing so help inspire the next generation of resisters.”

The project artwork has been created by Rosa Kusabbi, a printmaker and animator based in Liverpool. Named by the Association of Illustrators as one of the top 10 graduates to watch, Rosa’s work is centred around female empowerment and social issues. Rosa describes her work as a mix of contemporary illustration with influences from vintage music and protest posters all tied together with a rebellious punky spirit.

The display will be on the screens of The Museum of Liverpool’s atrium from International Women’s Day (Tuesday, 8th March) to Sunday, 13th March.

To keep up to date with the work of Creative Spaces Co. follow them on twitter and Facebook and Skywriters Ltd on twitter and Facebook