Thortify are a group of creative professionals who are passionate about challenging the stigma surrounding mental ill health. Uniquely, our ideas are grounded in social science and aim to empower people to make positive, lifelong changes by investing in and nourishing their own creativity and wellbeing.
In 2022, Thortify was awarded Arts Council funding for The Art of Self Care; a project designed to support public wellbeing through the development of free self care resources (https://www.thortify.co.uk/resources), workshops and events. The funding allowed Thortify to increase its ambition, scope and social impact, bringing together social workers, educators and professional artists from across the globe. Since then, our workbooks have been accessed by the wider public via our website which has had nearly 50K unique visits, at our ‘Self Care Social’ event and exhibition (350 distributed and 200 allocated for our professionals packs) and have been recommended by Occupational Therapists, Doctors and Social Workers, as well as used in mental health settings.
In 2024, Thortify became a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee to continue on their quest to champion the importance of creative self care. We are now seeking to create a base from which to build upon our creative community and continue to provide access to free, high quality creative activities.
The Place is a community and activity centre run by a not-for-profit company Sherwood Depot Action Group (SDAG). The Place and SDAG have been operational since 1997. Following COVID The Place has been rebuilding its activities, with a very close focus on the needs of the local community.
At present The Place runs approximately 200 hours of courses, classes and meetings per month involving around 30 community groups. It also provides a home for community based organisations and charities, including the Sherwood Exchange (a food and household goods exchange), Phoenix (a sustainability and ecology charity) and Thortify.
