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Take Care St Helens

1st Sep 2019 — 30th Sep 2020

Take Care St Helens celebrates those special spaces and places in our town that offer support, advice and care. Created through many conversations and workshops with local people and community groups, it takes the form of a map which highlights the many ways we care for one another. A practical tool for support and information, it also acknowledges those places that no longer exist.

Who cares?

Care

noun 1. The provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something.

verb 1. Feel concern or interest; attach importance to something

"That’s what the Oxford English Dictionary defines as care. The Old English is ‘caru’ or ‘cearu’ which means ‘sorrow, anxiety, grief’. In general use, care tends to mean caution than comfort. In creating this map, I’ve asked many people what care means to them personally, and what care means in St Helens. People offering formal care (such as YMCA, TearDrops, CGL) highlighted the importance of supporting personal independence, practically as well as emotionally, as an aspect of care. Informal caring spaces (like Momo’s, the Library, Phoenix) emphasised the significance of offering kindness, opportunities to be social and different ways of being together."

You can read Hwa Young's full Who Cares? essay over on her blog here.

Take Care St Helens launched as part of Madlove Take Over in November 2019, where it was exhibited in the festival space and copies of the map were available to take home. Visitors could also create their own local maps of care through a screen printing workshop with artist Kate Hodgson.

A large scale watercolour painted map hangs on a wall next to a white table. Underneath the map you can see the words 'Take Care St...'

Two pairs of hands are screen printing. Next to the screen a piece of fabric with a map printed on it.

A large map hangs on a wall with a low set of shelves next to it with leaflets on top. Underneath the map the words 'Take Care St Helens' are printed in large red letters.

Hwa Young updated the map in September 2020 in response to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and to mark the acts of generosity, support, mutual aid and care for those around us that emerged during this time.

A watercolour painted map of St Helens with the words 'Take Care St Helens Updates' written in pink lettering on the bottom left corner.

You can explore the digital version of the updated Take Care St Helens map below.

If you'd like to share your own space of care, please let us know via social media using #takecaresthelens

Take Care St Helens was created by Hwa Young Jung, illustration is by Millie Chesters. With special thanks to all  of the people who shared their spaces and places of care with us.