Abstract:

Blyth Tall Ship (BTS) is a heritage boatyard in the Port of Blyth in North East England which builds traditional ships, organises expeditions, and delivers training based on heritage boat-building skills to those in the local community who may not have access to formal training opportunities. An award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund has allowed BTS to develop their ‘Learning the Ropes’ programme of workshops with a wider focus on fostering individual and community wellbeing, and teach traditional skills like woodworking, gansey knitting, seamanship, knot-tying, archiving and sea shanty singing.

The aim of this research, conducted over 18 months, is to develop a ‘toolkit’ of evaluation techniques that allow BTS staff to capture the impact of their work on the participants (individual wellbeing) and the wider impact for the community of Blyth (community wellbeing) to inform future recruitment and delivery. The team explored the research question: “Do workshop participants demonstrate improved wellbeing and/or greater involvement in or connection with the wider community through engaging in the workshops?” A set of previously developed and trialled evaluation tools included an observation sheet and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) questionnaire. Semi-structured interviews gave insight into participants’ motivations, perceptions and social engagement. Community wellbeing was explored using a Diamond 9 ranking exercise in a participatory approach.

Initial findings demonstrate evidence of an increase in individual wellbeing over the course of the workshops, and qualitative comments from participants reflect the impact that engaging in the workshops has had on confidence and willingness to interact with others.  Although WEMWBS self-reported wellbeing scores did show an increase, there is nonetheless debate over how external factors (e.g. grief) may influence scoring and how much emphasis can be put on workshops alone raising wellbeing.

Findings highlighted how a short-term intervention can lead to long-term impact on the individual. Some participants sought to prolong their involvement through signing up to subsequent courses, returning to volunteer with the organisation, or becoming part of an offshoot group. However, there is a danger that engaging in a workshop course will increase wellbeing, only to leave the participant feeling a sense of loss when the workshop ends, identifying the need to signpost participants to other opportunities, within or outside of BTS and the importance of BTS being connected into the wider ecosystem of care in the region. Understanding of community wellbeing draws on Atkinson et al’s conception – that it is more than just the aggregate of individuals’ wellbeing and “emerges from the relations between individuals, between individuals and place, individuals and cultural values and heritage and so on” (2017, 5). Network analysis of interview data showed many participants frequent several local community organisations and there is crossover between workshops, but this varied with the different workshops – knitters were more socially connected than woodworkers. Finally, there is strong evidence that the singing group is branching out into the local community through performances at community events. This not only has a marked impact on the individual’s wellbeing, but also encourages them to take part in local events and forge an identity as a key part of a larger group.

Keywords:

Wellbeing, mental health, lifelong learning, adult learning, informal learning, community, heritage, traditional skills, participatory methods.