Myriad: A Global Majority Spotlight on Creative Health aimed to enhance mental health support for global-majority communities across Greater Manchester by supporting a more diverse creative health workforce and developing a culturally competent, creative offer accessible to communities.
Myriad was designed and delivered by a consortium of organisations, including Afrocats and Company Chameleon, and was commissioned by NHS Greater Manchester.
Over the last two years (2023-25), we have supported global majority practitioners through the development and delivery of training, professional development, group supervision and peer networking. With partners in the voluntary, community and faith sector (VCFSE), we have delivered five test-and-learn projects in community settings, creating space for organisations to trial new ways of working and giving emerging practitioners vital experience of project delivery.
Myriad is a strand of the GM Creative Health Place Partnership and part of Live Well, Greater Manchester’s commitment to ensuring that excellent, everyday support is available in every neighbourhood. MYRIAD is part of GM Live Well; Greater Manchester’s commitment to ensuring great everyday support is available in every neighbourhood. This includes work to ensure; people being connected to a wide variety of activities, support and information; people being heard and enabled to contribute to make their communities healthier and happier and people and communities having the resources to make change happen.
Myriad is proudly supported by The Baring Foundation and Arts Council England.
Greater Manchester has long recognised that only a small percentage of health is generated via statutory health and care services and that we need to harness all the wider factors that contribute to our health and wellbeing, including access to creativity, culture and heritage. This is why Greater Manchester has committed to becoming the first Creative Health City Region and why Myriad was commissioned to both support the development of global majority creative health practitioners and to develop a broader and more creative mental health offer with and for global majority communities.
Nearly one in four people in GM experience a mental health or wellbeing issue, yet the access to, experience of, and outcomes from mental health services for many minoritised ethnic communities are simply not good enough.
Mental health is ‘made’ in communities, so action for mental health equality needs to begin in neighbourhoods, localities, and community groups. This is why Myriad has focused on working with community-led providers, offering support, resources and new connections that have enabled them to develop their creative, culturally competent offer with and for the communities they serve.
Myriad supports the delivery of the NHS GM Mental Health Strategy 2024-29, which outlines a comprehensive plan to enhance mental health services, support individuals with mental health conditions, and reduce mental health inequalities across the region.
Myriad supports the delivery of the NHS GM Mental Health Strategy 2024-29, which outlines a comprehensive plan to enhance mental health services, support individuals with mental health conditions, and reduce mental health inequalities across the region.
The resources available here share learning from Myriad and are free for everyone to access and use.
We have designed all of our resources with a range of audiences in mind. Whether you’re an early-career practitioner, a volunteer, community or faith organisation, or a mental health service provider, this resource offers ideas, guides, and real-world examples to support your work.
You can explore section by section, or dip in and out, depending on your interests and needs.
We encourage you to share this resource with colleagues, partners and peers and to join the conversation.
To connect with us about this work, get in touch.
