The Stepping Stones programme promotes positive mental health and provides regular long-term opportunities for young people in Hampshire to use creativity to build emotional resilience. The high-quality sessions are delivered by professional artists and held in our museums and within education and community settings, as well as Bursledon House at Southampton Children’s Hospital.
For six years Hampshire Cultural Trust (HCT) worked in partnership with Hampshire Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) on two projects that provided innovative, creative support for young people experiencing challenges managing their emotional and psychological health, ICE (Inspire, Create, Exchange) and ICE Heritage.
The successor to these two programmes is Stepping Stones, which was generously supported by Imagine This (formally The Murray Parish Trust) from February 2024 - May 2025, and builds on learnings from the two ICE projects. Continuing HCT’s mission to enable young people to access high-quality arts and culture across the county.
You can read the evaluation report from the first phase of Stepping Stones here.
We have just launched the next phase of the Stepping Stones programme, starting with a 6-week ceramics programme at The Allen Gallery in Alton. Please see below for further details about how to sign up:
