Isaac's accessing well-being, services.

But being for me is like that holistic, um, kind of body mind, spirit, soul. Um, yeah, all of it all wrapped in one that we have a big problem in this country that sometimes we shy away from talking about these topics. So racism has affected me in many, many levels. Uh, or and that might be that very deliberate racism which doesn't acknowledge my, um, racial identity, my cultural needs to those kind of microaggressions

And I think when you have those experiences don't really want to engage with the best things that can support you. There's a lot of emphasis on Eurocentric, Western, um, models and understandings of well being. And actually, it's much more than that

It can be about your identity that can be your sexual identity, your racial identity, your disability identity, all of that that intersect. And I think sometimes when you get there, they are often full of white people and they are full of white people. That may not even benefit from that support in a way that you could

And that's how you create space for people that can really benefit from that racialized perspective. Um, how people in those organisations are people from global majority backgrounds themselves. How we're not just stepping into using kind of Western well being, and arts kind of approaches how we can embrace different approaches dance, music, art therapy

Do all of that kind of stuff and do it through a non Western lens. And they can use language that doesn't connect or resonate with you. They can just make you feel unwelcome

They can have many barriers. You know, they often like I live in a very nice, affluent, um, part of East London. That and those very things that you would think of arts and well being, like they happen at a particular time of the day

You have to contribute a particular amount of money. There's a big waiting list you need to know about it. In the first instance you get there, there's often a white middle class person sat there delivering, and if you've had challenges around power and privilege and you know racism, like that's not gonna be a safe space for you in the first place

Mhm. First of all, the the answer isn't medication and talking therapies and all those kind of things. In my view, well being services, art services, art organisations and well being organisations

They are really important function in supporting people, particularly people from minoritized communities, global majority communities. Uh when we've accessed services in other places, they've been racist, they've been other, We've been re traumatised, traumatised and I think that the arts and well being services could be the antidote to that. They can support people around meeting the holistic needs and they can use approaches that are culturally, um, identity wise, much more nuanced

Um, they're safe. They can be safer environments. I think they need to be more diverse and their approaches need to be more diverse

They need to be rooted in anti racism, anti oppress. And I think that lines with arts and well being in my head at least, um, I think there's not enough often, um, you know, it's really difficult to find those kind of organisations. These arts and well being organisations first of all, don't appeal to black and brown people because what you're seeing is white people inviting you into a space, um so not accessible in terms of our hearts and minds

They're not accessible because they're structured in a way that doesn't necessarily necessarily recognise the stuff that we're coming with. And I think it is fair to say that you know, when you are somebody from a global majority background or black and brown person on when I was first community bane, whatever word you use, you might have some challenges in your life because of poverty. You might have some challenges in your life because of, you know, educational injustice

You might have some challenges in your life because of mental health. You know, like we know all of this stuff exists within our communities. Yet the various services and opportunities to engage are 9 to 5, um, in spaces and places that are not friendly or don't resonate with us

Um, they're often led by people that don't sound and look like us. They often use approaches that don't recognise our cultural or religious or, um, identity, um, within the approach. And certainly they are often, you know, not safe spaces

So they often have, um, active racism. Um, they have microaggressions in there. They have, you know, just sort of awareness

Like what it truly means to be inclusive.