Sangini's Health Development...

Crucial health based work has been delivered through participatory and educational projects, as well as specialist talks and presentations.  As a result of this, Sangini was commissioned a major audit of BME health issues in Sunderland by the Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust and Healthy Cities Partnerships.  This has led to groundbreaking work in the form of establishing links with the BME communities, new contacts within the health sector and a potential infrastructure for tackling inequalities within the BME health sector.

To date, Sangini has worked with partners from various sectors ranging from voluntary/community sector to formal education sector.  Whilst this continues to add to the reputation and experience of the organisation for high quality arts and health provision, the time has arrived for the organisation to prepare itself for the imminent change with a meaningful forward planning and a robust fundraising strategy. 

Strategic Health based activities:  In order to make sure the development of a strong infrastructure for the BME health, Sangini aims to work in partnership with the strategic health agencies and community groups to deliver a series of activities to tackle inequalities and promote fair delivery of services.  A draft plan is attached with this.

Apki Sehat (meaning your health) – is a project targeted towards Black Minority Ethnic women living in the North and South areas of Sunderland who have expressed an interest in learning more about engaging in physical activities to improve their well being and requested support towards developing participatory activities.  After a sustained effort towards building relationship with the women from the Sikh community, the group, now known as Ektha, has identified specific issues around well-being.  As well as women from the Sikh community, women from the Bangladeshi community and Refugee and Asylum seekers have expressed an interest in participating in health related exercise; this will encourage integration and inclusiveness across different BME communities. The key elements of the project are participation, awareness raising, empowerment and integration.  The project activities are, walking and swimming, gym, swimming and keep-fit session.

Dance & Health – is a participatory project which aims to use dance as a means of raising awareness of the impact and importance of regular exercise to tackle health issues such as obesity, high blood pressure, and mental health problems.
This is a pilot Initiative which if successful can lead onto continuous dance activity in Sunderland.  Our aim is to work in partnership with Back on the Map, Arts Council England, Dance City, Hudson Road School’s Community Woman’s group, the Sikh communities Ektha group.  As part of this project we aim to deliver dance workshops around Citizenship values to support the PHSE curriculum for 8 to 11 year olds.  All the groups involved in this project will create a short performance piece which will be presented as part of Sangini’s Diwali celebrations to be held on 25th October 2008 at Ashbrook Hall in Sunderland.

Registered Charity number 1124769