After nearly eight years of running all kinds of classes, teaching thousands of people how to build tree houses, use power tools, keep bees and more, Rumpus founders Caitlin Marshall and Lizzie Rose have launched a new not-for-profit venture.
“Makeshift is an education and support agency dedicated to mental health and creativity for social change,” Caitlin says.
“Our big focus is really wanting to build the skills and capacity of people in the community to understand that we all can be empowered to find ways to support our mental health.
“We have a program called Creativity on Prescription, a course that goes over eight weeks. And we’re working in partnership with iCare NSW, the workers’ compensation agency.”
Makeshift will also deliver mental health first aid courses, quick doses of creativity for workplaces and teach people how to invite play into their lives to promote mental wellbeing.
Rumpus students will recognise Makeshift’s “creative prescription facilitators”, including Narelle Happ (gardening), Emma Saunders (dance and movement), Kiara Mucci (painting) and Helena Fox (writing).
Lizzie says: “If we didn’t have Rumpus, we wouldn’t have Makeshift.
“The seven years that came before us morphing into Makeshift was the ground that paved the way for where we are today.
“Participants were telling us that while they loved learning how to fix their own bike tyre or bake their own sourdough bread, what it was also bringing them was a sense of just happiness for two hours in their day. And they felt calmer and less anxious and more connected, less isolated.
“That just kept on happening.
And then a couple of GPs and psychologists got in touch with us and mentioned that they were referring people to our classes on a therapeutic basis. We realised we had some sort of prescription program happening, and focused in on that and turned it into Makeshift.”
“The really wonderful thing too,” Caitlin says, “is we’re working with all these Illawarra-based artists, but now we have people from all over Australia participating in our programs.
“In Australia, it’s such a new field of work, but in the UK, it’s part of the national health scheme – the concept of social prescribing, where you can literally go to your doctor and get a prescription to go to sing in a choir or join a community garden.”
“It’s quite exciting for us. We’re walking down a new trail here.”
Researchers have found exercise and creative acts can have a similar impact on our nervous system, Caitlin says.
“If you spend 15 minutes drawing, you’re actually going to be reducing your stress hormone; calming your nervous system …
“But so many people just say, ‘Well, I can’t draw. I’m not creative’.”
Lizzie: “It’s not even what you’re drawing. It’s like the very act of taking a pencil or a pen ... and literally drawing a stick figure can alter the chemistry in your brain.
“We focus more on the making, rather than the outcome, because it’s what you’re doing while you’re making that has the integrated effect on your nervous system, your brain chemistry and your hormones.”
Caitlin: “Kind of like going to the gym.”
So, we can all skip the gym today, stay home and draw a stick figure?
Lizzie laughs: “Yes!”
For more information, visit www.makeshift.org.au