The Involvement Network brings together service users and staff from secure services, including NHS and private organisations, in the Yorkshire and Humber region. The Network is about sharing best practice, service improvement, and collaborative working to improve the experience and quality of support that individuals receive.
The Annual Network get together is always a highly anticipated event, with service users and staff working together throughout the year to plan and prepare. The planning group for 2023 were keen to get outdoors and thought a music festival would be a great idea to bring people together.
Upbeat pop music from guitar and saxophone duo, Jenkins and Alexander, kicked off the day. Service Users were also invited to get involved with the entertainment and showcase their talents, there were some fantastic musical performances and poetry readings throughout the day.
In keeping with the theme, each service were asked to decorate a welly for the most creative welly competition – the entries were amazing! There was also a welly wanging competition as well!
For those who wanted to get moving, there were games of football, rounders and a silent disco to join. Service users were able to enjoy lunch from Bears Street Food with an ice cream van serving desserts. A room inside the Rugby club was available for anyone wanting a quiet moment, where they could sit and enjoy lunch or have some Henna art.
The afternoon saw performances from Bernie, and local band The Cheats, who performed some 80’s and 90’s indie rock music. There was a great variety of genres during the event to cater for all tastes.
Charlotte Byrne, Yorkshire & Humber Involvement Lead said: “Welly Fest 23 was an ambitious ask, our service user and staff planning group worked incredibly hard to make this wish a reality alongside the support and sponsorship of Cygnet, for which we are truly grateful.
“The day was a huge success, 180 guests gathered with smiles on their faces to enjoy live music, good food and get involved in activities together. It was a real festival atmosphere and celebration of involvement.
“One service user had been in hospital for 8 years and said this was the best day he had had in that time; another had experienced live music for the first time. All the feedback so far has been extremely positive and many people asking when we can do it all again!”
Overall the day was a great success, we are looking forward to joining part 2 of the event which is being held virtually in July.