Response to the Civil Society Covenant Framework from Creative Lives December 2024
About Creative Lives Established in 1991, Creative Lives has a 33-year track record of celebrating, supporting and promoting everyday creativity across the UK and Ireland, significantly impacting the academic, political, social and cultural landscape through its campaigning, lobbying, research and creative projects. We champion community and volunteer-led creative activity, and work to improve opportunities for everyone to be creative.
Creative Lives welcomes the draft Civil Society Covenant and its framework of principles as a step towards fostering stronger relationships between civil society and government. As a registered charity established in 1991, we champion community and volunteer-led creative activity, focusing on local, not-for-profit, and volunteer-led creative groups whose activities are shaped and directed by the people who take part in them. Against a backdrop of long-term austerity policies, it has become increasingly difficult for public bodies to support creativity in our communities. Yet we have seen, through our work, the transformative power of creativity to reanimate communities, strengthen social bonds, and enable people to see themselves as valued contributors to civic partnerships and local development.