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Health promotion is a powerful and cost effective way to maintain a healthier community. It enables people to increase control over and improve their health.

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Community Arts Participation Projects

The arts have a well-recognised potential to promote health and wellbeing. One of the arts' most powerful contributions to health is that they reflect and create an inclusive sense of community. There is now considerable evidence that the stronger people feel this sense of belonging, the healthier they are.

VicHealth supports participation in community arts activities by providing funding to assist community members to work in collaboration with artists to create a performance, exhibition or public event that expresses or raises issues important to that community.

Through this process people can: develop skills and capacity to express and celebrate their culture; get involved in group activities; access supportive relationships; build self-esteem and self-confidence; and increase a sense of self determination and control.

Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse

In 2008, Platform provided artistic opportunities for young people to write, direct, perform, sing, dance, produce and design through a series of workshops and productions based on the theme of each of The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse (Pestilence, Famine, War and Death). Each of these works is different in their developmental processes and public presentations.

In the Zone

In the Zone was a participatory and experimental art making project for young people (12 years and over) in the Cloverdale area of Corio on the outskirts of Geelong. Working with a team of professional artists, performers, film-makers and musicians during the three school term breaks, young people were provided the opportunity and resources to express their creativity, critically engage with new artforms and ideas, and make something new and original in a social and supportive environment.

Jumpjet Circus Project

The Jumpjet Circus Project engaged refugee and newly arrived young people in circus and the performing arts. Jumpjet also aimed to assist with settlement issues and connecting young people to their local communities. The project happened across Melbourne, with workshops being delivered in the two main English Language Schools in Noble Park and Braybrook and at the North Melbourne Community Centre.

Mental Health Music Network

The Mental Health Music Network provided weekly music workshops, monthly performance events, 15 Mins of Sane theatre project, workshops in country Victoria and the annual Mad Hatters Music Festival for people living with a mental illness from across Melbourne and the state.