about.

See Me North is a project, led by Northumbria University, which aims to develop and evidence an integrated creative care model for people with experience of homelessness. The project funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), is co-created, trauma informed and takes a broad and holistic view of health. Defining homelessness as sleeping rough, living in shelters, hostels, and temporary or unsuitable accommodation, this project will support people to develop the skills and confidence to reengage in society and move forwards in their lives. This project encourages services to see people who have experience of homelessness (past or present) as whole people with strengths, talents, resilience, and aspirations rather than defining people by their needs.  Taking an integrated creative health approach to homelessness moves the system from a focus on meeting the most basic needs (food, water, shelter, safety) to one which is able to meet the more complex emotional, social, and spiritual needs we come with as complex human beings (acceptance and belonging, purpose and fulfilment) and to facilitate personal growth and development.

Spanning three years, the See Me North project aims to inform and develop trauma informed approaches, evidence good creative health practice locally and nationally, map creative health approaches across the North East and Cumbria and support integration within the health system, and develop an online directory of available support, working collaboratively across the three years with decision makers, service providers, and people with lived experience of homelessness to continually challenge, grow, and celebrate practice across the region.