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

全球对儿童福祉的关注日益增加，现在已成为有关儿童生活质量的主要国际政策文件的核心内容（例如联合国可持续发展目标3：良好健康和福祉）。研究表明，儿童的幸福与培养积极的学习态度和成功应对变化有关；相反，情绪低落会导致心理健康问题。英国约有10%的儿童患有严重的精神疾病，自杀是年轻人死亡的第三大原因（Merikangas等人，2010年）；对于弱势群体，例如来自社会经济高度贫困地区的群体，这一数字更高。与大自然的接触可能对健康有实质性的好处，而童年时期缺乏与大自然的接触已被发现是成年期抑郁的一个预测指标。尽管如此，在过去的30年里，英国经常在野外玩耍的儿童数量下降了90%（《自然儿童报告》，2012年），生活在高度剥夺条件下的儿童明显不太可能进入绿地。英国政府的“我们改善环境的25年计划”（2018年）明确表示，承诺通过使用绿色空间来帮助人们改善健康和福祉，特别关注弱势地区。一种创新的方法是在熟悉的户外场所进行艺术创作；有证据表明，艺术可以提高幸福感和社会包容性；然而，社会经济地位低的人比富裕的人接触艺术的机会少，艺术在学校课程中日益边缘化。这项参与式研究位于这三个问题的交叉点：关注儿童的福祉；他们与自然环境明显脱节；学校课程中缺乏与艺术的接触。它建立在阿马蒂亚·森（Amartya Sen）关于人类能力作为幸福代表的研究基础上，发展了“生态能力”一词，用来描述儿童如何通过环境可持续性、社会正义和未来经济福祉（可持续性的三大支柱）来定义他们认为自己需要什么来过上完全人类的美好生活。研究将利用慈善机构剑桥好奇心和想象力（CCI）的艺术实践，在两所小学中进行，这些小学被确定为高度贫困和剥夺文化设施最少的地区。这将包括：1。与孩子们一起进行为期一天的关于健康和自然的研讨会，介绍生态能力的概念，并以此为平台，从孩子们那里引出一系列生态能力。然后，孩子们将根据这个清单来评估自己：他们觉得自己在多大程度上能够在他们的生活中实现这些生态能力？孩子们对熟悉的地方的识别，他们发现很难参与其中，无力改变，然后在这些地方散步，他们被要求谈论他们与这些地方的关系。然后，艺术家将与孩子们一起计划以艺术为基础的干预，这样的实践将直接从孩子们对当地的关注中产生。艺术家将根据共同计划的干预措施，为儿童提供八个半天的讲习班。在这些干预活动结束时，CCI将在当地社区参与活动中举办展览（ARTinature）或表演（actature）。将重复举办生态能力讲习班，通过讲习班，儿童将有机会修订其生态能力清单，并根据经修订的清单对自己进行评估。在当地的散步也将重复，重新访问孩子们认为难以参与的地方，探索与艺术家的合作是否发展了他们与他们的关系。最后的表演和艺术展览将在剑桥的一个公共空间举行。

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.