The company’s activities provide creative art and textile activities in the North East, with a focus on positive and rewarding experiences, including improved health and wellbeing, reducing social isolation, confidence and employability or life skills. This is contiguous with supporting creative achievements and challenging long held beliefs to turn negative past experiences into positive. Positive practices and achievements in regular supported group creative activities can often impact more widely across a participant's future life. We support our communities by providing resources for use during, and after projects. We keep in touch with participants in person, by telephone or using moderated private social media groups, which are moderated by experienced volunteers. These groups facilitate sharing and mutual support, which is crucial to ensuring a positive experience over the longer term. We have been able to deliver against three main projects. A small 25th Birthday National Lottery grant allowed us to gather a small group to participate in textile dyeing and developing machine sewing skills.National Lottery Reaching Communities Coronavirus Recovery Project supported us to create a group to engage with sewing and recycling skills. 50% of the participants were new to working with Cultural Creatives CIC and the others, known to us, welcomed everyone who joined the project. We produced and made available videos giving technique guidance, we provided all the resources required for the activities which were hand delivered to the participants. Resources and technique specific tools were left with the learners who wished to extend their experience and learning after the project. Project achievements includes a positive social impact by in person delivery, social media communications (especially during lockdowns), a small group of learners arranged to meet up locally, outside the project, in a socially distant and safe manner when allowed by the lifting of COVID restrictions. We also created an extension project where our community made textile squares for quilts to be completed and donated to a designated community in 2021.Across these projects we ensured to prioritise local purchase of resources, we received support with extensive fabric donations and encouraged the re use of textiles over new purchase. We reduced delivery mileage by careful planning and making bulk deliveries to ‘hub’ volunteers for local distribution. We gained 6 volunteers and supported each, to volunteer in tasks which utilised existing skills and supported the development of new ones. As required by the COVID lockdown situation we also supported our participants who were isolating and needed basic supplies or additionally foodbank deliveries.We were successful in 2020 obtaining ESF funding to cover 2 North East areas: South Tyneside and Sunderland. We adapted our teaching strategy to be remote/blended learning to reach out to the community participants during lockdown and delivered our project to 27 participants, with many having successful outcomes of progression, employment and volunteer opportunities. Our delivery was online with live tutorials, instructional videos via our secure password protected website and home deliveries and telephone communication. We expect steady growth to continue, and acknowledge that without this funding we would have delivered significantly fewer services.Our reviews from participants speak for themselves and clearly demonstrate a major impact in their mental health and wellbeing having engaged in our projects, learnt new skills, met new friends, gained confidence and improved self-esteem.

The company’s stakeholders are North East residents, this year Sunderland and South Tyneside, who wish to explore their creativity and improve skills and mental health in a positive group environment. It also includes local suppliers, volunteers, project participants and the community that has engaged with us via social media and digital channels. This year we have provided high quality remote learning opportunities with a range that our learners would easily have found elsewhere, which resulted in increased confidence to try, then sustain activities and explore and maintain new social contacts. We conducted research among our project participants to identify future types of projects they would be keen for us to provide. The feedback has led us to increase our focus on encouraging sustainable practices with upcycling, recycling, repurposing, saving waste textiles from landfill, seeking out slow fashion and promulgating longevity of use of resources.

Directors Remuneration is clear within our accounts. There were no other transactions or arrangements in connection with the remuneration of directors, or compensation for director’s loss of office, which require to be disclosed

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration