ECO-CAPABILITIES: Supporting Children's wellbeing through participatory art in nature

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Global interest in children's wellbeing is growing and is now central to major international policy documents regarding children's life quality (e.g. UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing). Research suggests that children's wellbeing is linked to developing positive learning attitudes and coping successfully with change; conversely, low emotional wellbeing can lead to mental health problems. Critically 10% of children in England suffer a severe mental health illness and suicide is the third leading cause of death in young people (Merikangas et al, 2010); this figure is higher for vulnerable groups, such as those from areas of high socio-economic deprivation. Substantial benefits for wellbeing may be derived from contact with nature and lack thereof in childhood has been found to be a predictor for adulthood depression. Despite this, in the last 30 years the number of children regularly playing in wild places in the UK fell by 90% (Natural Childhood Report, 2012) and children living with high deprivation are significantly less likely to have access to green spaces. HM Government's 'Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment' (2018) explicitly states a commitment to helping people improve their health and wellbeing by using green spaces, with a particular focus on disadvantaged areas. An innovative way to approach this is through art in familiar outdoor places; there is evidence that arts can improve wellbeing and social inclusion; however, individuals with low socio-economic status have less access to the arts than their more affluent counterparts and the arts are increasingly marginalised in school curricula. This participatory study is situated at the intersection of these three issues: a concern with children's wellbeing; their apparent disconnect with the natural environment; and a lack of engagement with the arts in school curricula. It builds on Amartya Sen's work on human capabilities as a proxy for wellbeing, developing the term eco-capabilities to describe how children define what they feel they need to live a fully human good life through environmental sustainability, social justice and future economic wellbeing (the three pillars of sustainability). Research will be undertaken using arts-based practice of the charity Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (CCI) within two primary schools in areas identified as having high poverty and deprivation with minimal cultural provision. This will include:1. A full day workshop with children on wellbeing and nature, introducing the concept of eco-capabilities and using this as a platform from which to elicit from children a list of eco-capabilities. Children will then assess themselves against this list: to what extent do they feel they will be able to achieve these eco-capabilities in their life?2. Identification by children of familiar places that they find difficult to engage with and powerless to effect change in, followed by a walk around these places in which they are asked to talk about their relationship with them. Artists will then plan arts-based interventions with the children such that practice will emerge directly from children's concerns about their local places.3. Artists will facilitate eight half-day workshops with children, based on co-planned interventions. An exhibition (ARTinature) or performance (ACTinature) will take place within a local community engagement event led by CCI at the end of these interventions.4. The eco-capabilities workshop will be repeated through which children will have the opportunity to revise their list of eco-capabilities and assess themselves against this revised list. The walk around their local area will also be repeated, re-visiting places children had identified as being difficult to engage with, exploring whether working with artists has developed their relationships with them. A final performance and art exhibition will take place in a public space in Cambridge.