This week we heard that we had succeeded in an application worked on with Collective Encounters Tessa Buddle – for £15,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation. Their work has grown year on year, and they now run participatory theatre programmes that work with adults in areas of the region where there is still little opportunity to participate in the arts (Creative Communities); with women, and particularly the radical contribution women have made to the region (Women In Action); family groups whose voices are seldom heard including cared for young people and their families/ carers, unaccompanied young migrants, ethnically minoritised carers and families, and Older People. They have researched and published a guide to dementia-friendly arts activities). The Centre for Excellence provides training and sector development nationally and internationally, and the Radical Makers programme reached people who would normally be excluded from such opportunities.