The Institute for Creative Health recently undertook a detailed process to develop a strategic plan to guide our work for the next five years. One of the challenging things about strategic planning is how we describe ourselves, making sure that it is clear, succinct and detailed enough so that people understand what we are about. Here’s what we came up with…
Established in 2006, The Institute for Creative Health has grown to be one of the leading arts and health agencies in Australia and is recognised worldwide, largely due to our work leading the development of the National Arts and Health Framework. We are a national independent, no-for-profit Australian organisation that advocates for the arts to be delivered within health and social service organisations and the broader community. We develop arts projects that improve people’s health and wellbeing and support practitioners and organisations to better deliver arts and health programs.
We maintain rigorous governance and effective project management skills to deliver arts and health projects nationally. We are a resilient, committed and resourceful organisation with two appointed positions (an Executive Director and Sector Development/Liaison Manager), contracted project artists, a Board of Directors, five Ambassadors, who include high profile artists, arts and health, and research individuals and a consumer advocate, a cohort of volunteers, and committed pro-bono service providers.
The Institute for Creative Health works collaboratively and in partnership with a range of others including past and current partners; Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Sydney, Westfund Health, (a private regional community health fund in NSW and Queensland), Notre Dame University, NSW Health, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Ausdance Victoria and VicHealth. Our pro-bono supporters include PricewaterhouseCoopers and Henry Davis York.
More recently the Institute has established State and Territory Arts and Health Leadership Groups and a Donor Advisory Group, all of whom contribute to our advocacy, program development and the sustainability of the organisation.
The Institute does not currently maintain an independent business premises. Our team operates out of Melbourne and Adelaide co-locating in shared office spaces or on location at project delivery sites. We anticipate with our growth over the next few years that this will change and we will establish a permanent business space.