Join Friends of The Hera Project

Your support can make a real difference:

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    Donate

    Make a donation, either as a one-off gift or by setting up a monthly donation - if you’re a UK tax payer please complete the Gift Aid Form. Every pound you donate allows us to claim 25p on top, so if you donate £20 that puts £25 directly into our work supporting people.

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    Sign up to our mailing list

    Join our mailing list at the bottom of this webpage for the latest news and updates on the difference your support makes.

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    Share our fundraising ask

    We know not everyone is in a position to make a donation. If you cannot donate, please can you share our fundraising ask with friends and family?

Can you help save HERA Brighton & Hove?

Video description: a HERA participant shares the positive impact of Photo Walks.

We’re launching Friends of The Hera Project and we’d love you to be part of it.

The Hera Project has been running in Brighton and Hove since 2013. We support people with long-term health challenges using high-quality creative activities like art, singing, photography and creative writing.

Our practitioners are trained creative professionals with experience of supporting people with ongoing health conditions. Hera groups offer joy, creativity, comfort and companionship to all who come.

50% of our participants are referred to us by their GP, and research shows that taking part in creative activities has a wide variety of measurable benefits for health and wellbeing – from improving mood and confidence to supporting physical health and social connections. We see that in our work every day.

Running the Hera programme in Brighton and Hove costs about £60,000 a year, and after local council budget cuts we now have NO FUNDING for this work.

We’ve had to suspend a lot of our work in Brighton and Hove as we have no funding to support it right now – a heart-breaking decision.

This is particularly difficult when we know how much these groups mean to the people.

Please can you help? Your support can make a real difference. We’re asking our friends, supporters and wider network to join Friends of The Hera Project below.

Every donation makes a difference:

  • £5 pays for tea and biscuits at a group session

  • £15 pays the cost of one person to attend a Hera group

  • £150 pays for one session of a new creative group for 10 people

  • £250 pays for a deaf person to be supported at a Hera group by a British Sign Language interpreter

  • £500 pays for a supported group outing for people who might not be able to go out by themselves

  • £1,200 pays for a new arts activity to run for 8 weeks for people who have not attended before

    Your support helps us keep creativity and wellbeing at the heart of our community.

    THANK YOU!

What HERA participants say:

  • ‘It's definitely helped my sense of worth, which can disappear after being ill for a long period of time. It's helped me find a new hobby.’

  • ‘The social aspect of the group is really uplifting. It has really helped my stress and anxiety.’

  • ‘I'd lost sight of the fact that I need to allow time to play/have fun, which these sessions allow me to do.’

  • ‘I love the group, it feels like a family where everyone cares for each other.’

  • ‘This is life-saving, I’m happy for you to tell everyone that.’

  • “Just to express my gratitude to all the organisers and teachers at HERA. Attending sessions has been enormously helpful in my ongoing recovery from long term illness.”