Mon 23 – Wed 25 November 2026
Creative Facilitator Training Course
Deadline to apply: 8 November 2026
Event details
Developing Practice: Facilitating Community Consultations
How can we create meaningful opportunities for communities to share their experiences, ideas and perspectives through creative practice?
Join us for a three-day training programme designed for experienced creative practitioners to adapt their practice for community consultation contexts. With a particular focus on the health sector, the training will delve deeper into care, personal storytelling and ethical community-based research.
Open to facilitators working across all art forms and backgrounds, including theatre, visual arts, music, dance and beyond, the programme will provide an opportunity to reflect on existing approaches, explore new facilitation methods and build confidence in working with underserved communities. Through creative experimentation, practitioner-led sessions, reflective practice and peer learning, participants will explore how to create more accessible and responsive spaces for people to share their experiences, how to navigate power and vulnerability, and how to make thoughtful decisions when working with sensitive health-related stories.
The programme offers transferable skills for working in health and care settings, alongside opportunities to explore their application to a specific community-based research project exploring barriers to healthcare and diagnostics.
Delivered by Kate Bradnam, theatre practitioner and Methodology and Facilitator Lead for The Agency with masterclasses from creative practitioners and facilitators.
Free to take part. Travel expenses of up to £25 per day can be claimed after completing the programme. Refreshments provided.
Complete the application form to tell us about your experience, your creative practice and what you would like to gain from the programme.
The training will explore:
- Facilitation in health contexts (with the opportunity to transfer these skills to other contexts and settings)
- Selecting and adapting creative methods in response to context, purpose and participant needs.
- Ethical approaches to personal storytelling and the sharing of lived experience.
- Creative writing, storytelling and open-questioning techniques.
- Trauma-informed practice, accessibility, consent and emotional safety.
- Research conversations, ethical listening and the facilitator’s role and boundaries.
- Reflective practice, peer feedback and learning from experience.
- Applying learning through practical facilitation exercises.
Who is it for?
This programme is for adults aged 18+ who have experience facilitating workshops, courses or programmes. You do not need to come from a particular art form or creative discipline, but you should have an existing foundation in facilitation and an interest in developing your approach to community consultations and research.
When: Monday 23 – Wednesday 25 November, 10am – 4.30pm
Where: Storyhouse, Chester
Free to take part. Travel expenses of up to £25 per day can be claimed after completing the programme. Refreshments provided.
How to apply:
Complete the application form to tell us about your experience, your creative practice and what you would like to gain from the programme.
Deadline to apply is Sunday 8 November. We will be letting applicants know if they have been successful by Friday 13 November at the latest.
Due to the number of applications we may receive, we may not be able to accept everyone who applies to this programme. We are looking for a diverse range of applicants including art-form and experience.
Please let us know if you have any access requirements and would need some support to take part in the programme.