Sophie Alex-Bacquer: “I met with Clara Bourgeois, Director of the Culture and Health Centre in Nouvelle-Aquitaine”

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background ?

I studied social work, anthropology and social policy management before writing a thesis in political science. After that, I moved into the world of the social economy, working in social inclusion, then in consultancy and strategy in social innovation and research and development, before moving on to my current job as Director of the Culture and Health Centre cooperative in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

What is the Culture and Health Centre in Nouvelle-Aquitaine ?

The centre acts as a support tool for public policy on culture and health, with the aim of encouraging and supporting cultural and artistic initiatives in healthcare settings.
Its mission is to encourage and support health and culture professionals to set up cooperation projects in their establishments. On a daily basis, the team at the Centre informs, advises, guides and trains these professionals.

The Centre is positioned as a platform providing resources and information, but also as a training organisation and a laboratory for ideas and experimentation. We also conduct parallel research projects on the theme of culture and health.

Who works with you and who do you work with ?

Mainly professionals from the health (healthcare, medical-social, social) and arts and culture (artists, cultural establishments) sectors, as well as public stakeholders who have skills in these sectors.

If I say Europe, you say...?

Learning from and with others. Sharing. 

Why is a regional skills and resources centre involved in European projects ?

We are involved in European projects because we have a mission to generate new knowledge, to show what is being done elsewhere, and to innovate. European projects are a powerful lever for this, enabling us to publicise what we are doing here, find out what is being done elsewhere and, above all, work together with other viewpoints to come up with tomorrow’s answers to the societal challenges we face.

How do you make the link between operations and your day-to-day actions ?

For us, European projects are part of what we call our “ideas laboratory”. On a day-to-day basis, we disseminate the progress and results of the projects we are working on to the artists, carers, cultural coordinators and project managers with whom we work and who can mobilise them or simply draw inspiration from them in their day-to-day practices. Beyond that, what we produce in this ideas laboratory helps us to develop our day-to-day work in the field with professionals to better meet their needs. For example, we may be asked to use tools created in European projects in our local projects, or to distribute reports produced during our training courses, etc.

What does this bring to the dynamics of the organisation and the team ?

This provides great stimulus for the whole team. It’s an incredible asset for a small, multi-skilled team like ours. It allows us to take a step back in a structured framework, to draw inspiration and explore new approaches and ways of doing things. 

What is your fondest European memory?

What springs to mind is the very enthusiastic feedback from one of the partners in our cooperative who was invited to speak at a European round table and who was delighted with the opportunity and the openness this gave him.

Creating these links and spaces of openness for the whole community of stakeholders we work with is very stimulating.

What are the projects you are the proudest of ?

I haven’t been with the organisation very long, so I can’t tell you much about past projects, although I constantly see that they have made a huge contribution to our cooperative, in particular a project called Change Of View (https://change-of-view.eu/), which continues to live on through support based on the tools produced as part of this European project.

Apart from this project, which I did not take part in, there is the GinkGo project, an Erasmus+ project aimed at preventing isolation among the elderly who are the most removed from community life. This project is supported by a broad consortium of stakeholders in the field, professionals who work with the elderly, and researchers. It is supported by local technical committees, which means that it is firmly rooted in the needs of the regions and operational players. 

What about tomorrow?

Tomorrow? I hope that it will bring more European projects to continue to feed off each other, draw inspiration from each other and create shared knowledge. Tomorrow? We hope that these projects will continue to build on the skills of everyone involved, and the advocacy needed to develop cooperation projects in culture and health in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France and elsewhere in Europe. 

To find out more, visit : https://culture-sante-na.com/

Translate : NSS EPALE France]