Open Mind Summit 2020 – CREATE Paisley

Following on from the success of last year’s inaugural Open Mind Summit, CREATE Paisley are excited to launch tickets for Open Mind Summit 2020. Join us on Friday 9th October for a free virtual summit (hosted on virtual conference platform Hopin.to) exploring how creativity can help children and young people overcome isolation and loneliness.

Alan Clark, founder of CREATE, said ‘Young people need our support more than ever before. During the last few months, we’ve heard of so many young people who have struggled with feelings of isolation, lack of hope or have had to face a lot of uncertainty. They’ve experienced a worldwide pandemic, ongoing climate crisis and confusion over exam results. This has impacted a lot of young people’s wellbeing.’

The free summit will bring together young people, educators, artists, researchers, youth workers and funders. In partnership with Renfrewshire Leisure, Kibble and the University of the West of Scotland, the summit hosts a line up including Keynote Speaker, Steven McLeish, International Speaker & Spoken Word Artist. Stated by Evening Times ‘as one of Glasgow’s finest wordsmiths.’

Steven has worked with the BBC/STV/DofE and many more organisations sharing his story and a message of hope with a focus of combating mental health and social issues. Topics such dyslexia, depression, anxiety plus many more.

Panel sessions will cover various related topics from; creative approaches to overcoming isolation; to how we can ensure children and young people’s voices are central to our changed world. Other workshops will include Generation Scotland sharing their findings from their TeenCovidLife research and Malcolm Hamilton, Creative Director of Play:Disrupt leading a session on involving young people in decision making through playful consultation, evaluation and active citizenship.

The Open Mind Summit 2020 is funded by Renfrewshire Council and delivered in partnership with Create Paisley as part of Future Paisley. Future Paisley is radical and wide-ranging programme of events, activities and investments using the town’s unique and internationally significant cultural stories to transform its future.

Detailed programme and joining information can be found here