Accessible Arts & Media have been running inclusive arts and media learning projects in York since 1982. They include accessible music-making groups, singing and signing choirs, opportunities for learning-disabled young people and adults to train as workshop leaders and specialist creative and therapeutic sensory activities.

The people who take part in their projects include disabled young people and adults, people living with dementia and people with mental ill-health. They help them develop the confidence and skills to try new activities, make new friends and have more of a say in the things that matter to them.

And everyone has lots of fun along the way!

Accessible Arts and Media worked with us on our third cookbook, Secret Dishes From Around the World 3. They commissioned the fantastic artist Adam Highton to collaborate with a art group and together create a digital painting for the project.

York Foodbank is an organisation seeded by the Trussell Trust that provides invaluable services to the local community. They help individuals and families in crisis, through the provision of emergency food supplies. 

We worked with York Foodbank during our 2021 Reverse Advent Calendar Campaign.  The project encouraged people to donate a specific item to their local food bank  every day leading up to Christmas. We created a resource hub on our website with information about food banks across the country and promoted our free donation tracker to help people support their local food bank.

In partnership with Your Cafe in York and The Edge Cafe in Cambridge, Pantry Parcels transforms surplus food into meal kits. They launched in 2020 with support from Enactus York and have since made over 1000 meal kits and saved over 400kg of food waste!

Pantry Parcels’ founder Amelia Oberholzer took part in our 2022 Social Enterprise Internship programme and supported with projects such as our Holiday Hunger Donation Drive. In the months to come we’ll be working in partnership with Amelia and her team as Pantry Parcels further develops their cookery workshop offering and aims to publish their first fundraising cookbook.

Kitchen for Everyone York (KEY) is a charitable enterprise supporting the homeless and those suffering from food insecurity across the city. As a community organisation, KEY depends on a network of over one hundred committed volunteers covering shifts on Tuesday evenings and Sunday mornings as well as outreach sessions on Saturday evening. The organisation began in 2015 with the aim of providing those in need with a hearty Sunday morning breakfast, and has since expanded by offering food supplies, clothing, sleeping bags and toiletries to their customers alongside signposting their clients to other services that can help them in times of crisis. Since 2017, the organisation begun serving three course meals on Tuesdays, and supports its local foodbanks with donations of fresh fruit and vegetables.

We also respect the work of The Island – a charitable enterprise based in York supporting the city’s youth through mentoring, tutoring and therapy. By helping young people to build confidence and self-esteem, the Island aims to inspire young people to pursue their unique aspirations while combating crime and anti-social behaviour in York’s local communities. The Island offers one-on-one mentoring on a weekly basis as well as group-based mentoring to help young people improve their social skills and overcome loneliness. These include workshops and youth clubs centred around recreational and productive activities such as arts, crafts, sports and cookery, and can be held in any one the Island’s many high-quality facilities, including a games room, arts room, gym, kitchen and music room. The Island also provides mentees with a sensory room where children and young people can go to calm down and prepare themselves to engage in these exciting group-based activities.

Our Community Cookery School team visited York as part of the Secret Dishes From Around the World book tour in 2021. Whilst we were there, we spoke to Claire Houseman of Accessible Arts and Media, reflecting on the process of creating the artwork for the Libyan section of the cookbook. We also spoke to Kirsty Halliday about Accessible Arts and Media’s Sing and Sign Choir, and the impact of music on participants with dementia. You can listen to both interviews on our Share Your Secrets podcast, which is available for free via Spotify, Google and Apple!