Cultural spaces Training

Our highly sought after Cultural Spaces training is for cultural spaces across the UK and worldwide who want to strengthen their role as civic spaces and improve how they connect with, welcome and support homeless patrons & artists.

Cultural spaces should be for all people. Unfortunately, this is often not the case, and for homeless communities a particularly harsh irony exists. Despite often high levels of homelessness around cultural spaces, homeless communities across the UK and globe regularly experience barriers to entry, enjoyment and engagement at cultural spaces. While there are myriad complex reasons for this, one all-too common reason is because Cultural Spaces themselves are unfamiliar with best practice when welcoming and working with homeless people. Our training can change this. 

We support cultural spaces in the UK and internationally, including arts centres, galleries, museums, libraries, theatres, universities and colleges, to engage confidently, compassionatelyand meaningfully with people who are, or have been, homeless. Developed specifically for the cultural sector, our training combines practical guidance with AHI’s specialist arts and homelessness knowledge, co-created research and lived experience expertise. 

“AHI have been crucial in helping us understand homelessness and giving us the confidence to respond. They create a safe and inclusive space where no question feels silly, opening the door for staff to explore how they can help.”
Local Authority partner Medway Council 

What can Cultural Spaces training do for my organisation? 

We offer a half day, full day and 2 day Cultural Spaces training. 2 day trainings can be delivered across 2 consecutive days, or in phases depending on the needs of your organisation. We can deliver trainings in-person or online. 

Half day 

• Reframe your cultural space through the lens of its civic role and explore how it can become a more welcoming and supportive place for everyone. 

• Discover how cultural spaces have historically provided a lifeline for homeless communities, and the important role your organisation can play in continuing that legacy. 

• Develop a clearer understanding of homelessness, challenge common assumptions and build a shared language across your team. 

• Understand the barriers homeless people may face when accessing cultural and civic spaces and identify practical ways to begin removing them in your context. 

• Build staff confidence in welcoming and communicating with homeless visitors compassionately, including how to respond appropriately when they are unsure what to do. 

• Agree practical pledges that your organisation can begin putting into action from the moment someone enters your building. 

Full day 

• All half day training outcomes listed above plus 

• In-depth training for your security staff and wider team to gain confidence in signposting people to local homelessness services and striking up light-touch partnerships with those services 

2 day 

• All half day and full day training outcomes listed above plus 

• An initial hour consult with your booked trainer to scope the particular learning needs of your individual organisation, allowing us to tailor the workshop to your individual needs 

• In-depth scenario work, informed by AHI’s award-winning Legislative Theatre and Forum Theatre practices, that will allow your team to step into “imagined” scenarios, apply their learning in practice, and gain confidence ahead of real-life scenarios 

• Turn your pledges into a co-created written charter or policy, unique to your cultural space, for use into the future 

• Learn practical ways to meaningfully involve people with experience of homelessness in creative programmes and decision-making across your organisation.
   

Our training is informed by: 

• 7 years working with cultural spaces globally supporting them to fulfil a civic function 

• Open House: Cultural Spaces’ Responses to Homelessness by Phyllida Shaw, a case study we commissioned of 40 cultural spaces and the journeys they have gone through to work more closely with homeless people 

• Our Cultural Spaces Homelessness Toolkit: co-created in partnership with Museum of Homelessness, and originally piloted with Tate Modern and Manchester Museum.  

Are you an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation…? Our Cultural Spaces training can support you to deliver on Arts Council England’s Inclusivity & Relevance Investment Principle. Our trauma-conscious, equity-rooted approach is already helping organisations with:
– Board and workforce representation
– Creating safer, more welcoming cultural spaces
– Embedding co-creation and lived experience at every level 

Did you know? Our trainings are delivered by an AHI Co-Director and an Associate Artist with lived experience expertise. Income from our trainings directly support the ongoing professional development of arts facilitators and leaders who are or have been homeless.