Technological Perspective of the Research
As curators of conversation and connectors of ecosystems, our approach frames the context of our purpose. The “why” we are here, matters as we are innovating new areas of business between ecosystems. The context helps partners and everyday citizens to understand the “how” behind our theories of change. We have established a database of relevant material and published the concept of our Map of the Ecosystem, to harness our awareness and show the communities our value proposition.
Over the past few years, our team has met with individuals, organizations, and read countless papers, reports, and articles to build an awareness of the systems we are connecting through our work. We researched mental health from an outsider's position, fueled by the desire to demonstrate a different experience, bringing together ecosystems. While the connections may not have been immediately evident on the surface of day to day business, after digging we discovered a vast network of artists, agencies, and community leaders. We presented the opportunity to co-create the solutions, because those suffering benefit greatly from celebrating their evolution. We designed layers of engagement, as we recognized that some may be too angry, too filled with angst, to want to find a place of joy.
Our pain points were corroborated, shaping the nuanced path to solutions, which meant our dynamic and responsive solutions could serve a wider audience. We focused on the pragmatics and humanistic elements of delivering mental health services, learning how they and other service providers validate their business cases, and crucially, created judgement-free spaces for honest, open minded and heart-led, discussion. By creating these spaces via arts and culture-driven projects for us to explore, discover, and assess, we can support a dynamic model of compassion that engages with the self and others.
Similar to the work on the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative, we highlight the value being placed on the rich traditions of arts and culture, as it pertains to health status. They share that The World Health Organization “finds evidence of the contribution of the arts to the promotion of good health and the prevention of a range of mental and physical health conditions, as well as the treatment or management of acute and chronic conditions arising across the life-course.” (source link)
Our partnership with Branch Out Neurological Foundation was inspired in the last months of 2020 through our Town Hall initiative. Their “Your Brain on Art” fundraiser event celebrates art as a means of communicating brain health concepts, with several of their pieces interactively displayed in our "Open Minded Chats" series of events, hosted by the Calgary Public Library in February. This collaboration highlights the opportunity of arts and culture events to lead public narratives about perceived individual health status and actioning public health behaviours. It was a powerful opportunity to demonstrate how we can increase our understanding of how arts and culture relates to: perceived individual health status and actioning public health behaviours.
Since then, we have co-created elements of our Calgary Bliss Mind/Art Adventures. This series of adventurous sessions on a Saturday, is a prototype of designs for a traveling annual pop-up interpretive center that grows communities of support into festivals and events to celebrate our mental health achievements, acknowledge the struggles of oneself and others, and inspire them to rewrite the story of their wellness journey for the better.
Our impact framework focuses on capturing the layers of meaning behind word choices, formatting, and processes that we follow in developing our festival prototypes.
As a testament of this approach, we have partnered with numerous Indigenous artists, researchers, elders and vendors to include themes of Truth and Reconciliation at all stages of the design. Our impact framework focuses on capturing the layers of meaning behind word choices, formatting, and processes that we follow in developing our festival prototypes.
We are focused on establishing baselines, validating language, and experimenting with many micro-projects to ensure we track relevant indicators and measurements. At our Town Hall, 86% of surveyed attendees felt the event was beneficial to their wellbeing (83 organizations registered, 65 attended, and 39 stayed until the end). Our drop-in Artist Mental Health Meetup attendees consistently rate the monthly gatherings between 4-5 on a 5 point rating scale, their personal stories and experiences being validated by other attendees. (facilitated through a peer support model). Our survey established language in 2019, and it is currently open, collecting data to validate our initial assumptions.
While we currently present arts and culture through engaging hybrid virtual-live events, the Foundation sits on data committees where possible. We anchored our data collection points through our impact framework, to steadily improve the quality of responses. We are leveraging 3 years of ongoing surveys, interviews, and other data collection methods in the mental health ecosystem to learn how to best support community-wide efforts. We are testing our ability to incorporate aspirational design into our projects through a partnership with Rethink Urban with a Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED). The relevance of CPTED principles in Urban and Civic Planning helps us stay in line with the City of Calgary’s priorities for mental health and the safety of their citizens. The assessment and the incorporation of principles supports our platform to measure existing attitudes around inclusivity and mental health, as well as potential for crime prevention. Another example of such a micro-project is the HEAR Music Alberta group, which is testing the implementation strategy for music therapy into Alberta hospitals while raising awareness for this strategy through live concert events.
Through our events, we hope to make a difference in the emotional state of everyday citizens, for the better. We are designing an immersive esthetic experience that empowers us to layer meaning and creativity into our arts and culture projects through a core story narrative that includes the voices of the wealth of mental health-supporting services and programs in Calgary. Our tools have been developed to bridge understanding, by presenting the stages of health behaviour awareness through the lens of The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), “created by Dr. Milton Bennett (1986, 1993, 2004, 2013) as a framework to explain how people experience and engage cultural difference” (source link).
Essentially, our success will be tracked through our annual report, case studies to validate the working partnerships and sources of authority, our understanding of best practices to support compassionate conversation, and providing access to decent work for local artists. Our database was established over the summer, operating as a hub to connect skilled artists with service agencies and nonprofits. We currently track adoption, engagement, experiences with decent work, and attitudes that can make or break a career. Broadly speaking, our activities are classified by 3 key initiatives.
Engaging local arts & culture holistically to promote city-building,
Promote inclusivity through a diversity of perspectives, and
Provide 2-way conversations that promote compassion.
= Promote improvements in mental health literacy and compassion for those struggling with their mental wellness through arts and culture projects.
Our mandated objectives provide the mechanisms to work toward these outcomes. Each project is an opportunity to implement our values through our objectives, and gather evidence about our outcomes.
