The aim of this project, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, is to enable Devon to become a more autism-friendly place for children and young people. We are collaborating with local families of autistic children and young people to discover the barriers they face in accessing local facilities and engaging in the community. We’re also going to consult local businesses about the constraints they face in meeting access needs.

Findings will inform the development of online creative learning toolkits and an ‘Autism-Friendly Devon’ resource, listing providers who exhibit good practice in accessibility for autistic children and young people and their families. If you would like to hear more about this project or would like to get involved, please contact us or click this link to take our survey

We have been running our popular Merry Widows Project since 2016, supported by a variety of funders. It is currently supported by grants from Devon Community Foundation and Sport England.

This project enables older women who live alone, feel isolated, or have been bereaved to come together to make new friends. We meet on alternate Thursday mornings in Paignton. There is a varied programme of activities and outings and participants are always encouraged to put forward ideas. This could be anything from learning new skills, having interesting and useful presentations, going out for lunch or visiting local places of interest.

Thanks to a Movement Fund Award from Sport England, we are currently able to run ten Tripudio health and fitness sessions for our Merry Widows participants. Having the funding to offer ten sessions means that, by the end of this course, everyone will have had the opportunity to really learn the exercises and will be able to carry on with them at home once this course has finished. We are really grateful to Sport England for making this possible.

These sessions are being delivered by experienced and well-qualified instructor, Nicola Hall. They are really helping our participants to stay healthy whilst enjoying the exercises. A particular highlight is the opportunity to learn how to do a facial massage. We did wonder if our oldest participant, aged 90, might struggle but she really loves taking part, as do our other participants.

In June 2025 the Merry Widows joined younger participants in an Age Without Limits day, see more about it here.

The literature on human development throughout the lifespan is extensive, but it rarely includes anything on the development of creativity.

The literature on creativity and its development is even more vast, but this rarely links to other aspects of human development. We wanted to do something about that.

In addition, we wanted to include literature from areas of the world which hadn’t been as widely accessible as it deserved. And we wanted to create a different kind of journal – one which catered for both general interest and also for academia. This was an ambitious goal and we still have much more to achieve.

We are grateful to all those subscribers, funders and sponsors who have supported this initiative over the last 12 years – universities throughout the world, private individuals and organisations, as well as all our contributors who have given us a real insight into their research and other initiatives. Feature articles, book reviews and interviews are free to view, whilst academic research papers are by subscription only.

Thanks to all our wonderful contributors, Creativity & Human Development contains a wealth of information for academic researchers, practitioners and anyone else interested in creativity and human development. We are currently transferring our ejournal on to a new platform to make it accessible to a wider audience, so watch this space!

The Men’s Innovation Group was set up to support men who have been bereaved or facing loneliness in later life. They met monthly in Paignton, where there is a high incidence of social isolation amongst the increasingly ageing local population. Facilitated by a former business manager, the men’s group utilised their skills and expertise to create projects which reflect their interests and benefit the local community. 

Walking on Water

Our Men’s Innovation Group, together with members of our Merry Widows Project, undertook the Torbay Local Heritage project, ‘Walking on Water’, collecting local people’s memories of Fleet Walk in Torquay, where in the 1980s a shopping centre was constructed over the River Fleet. This project was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund via Torbay Council.

Some of our earlier work

Previous examples of our work include the UK’s first international conference on Creativity & Cultural Diversity.

We have also developed learning materials for the Department for Education & Employment (DfEE), undertaken creativity education consultancy for the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA), the National Advisory Committee for Creative & Cultural Education (NACCCE), and many others.

Our work has been published and presented internationally – in Eastern & Western Europe (including by the European Commission), in the USA (Torrance Lecture Series), in Japan (Annual Educational Psychology Association Conference) and in Malaysia, in conjunction with the Opening of the Nobel Prize Centennial Exhibition, including keynote panel membership for Forging the Creative Agenda for Malaysia.

Equality and diversity in employment is very important to us and we have participated in a number of relevant projects such as the ESF-funded Bradford Equal, and Disability Enterprise Support in West Yorkshire commissioned by Asian Trades Link (ATL), as well as a project for the Learning & Skills Council on the benefits of a diverse workforce.

Our charity’s work has been supported by grants from many organisations including: