02.02.26
Curious about creativity and wellbeing? Care about your own or other young people’s mental health? Want to meet inspiring people and help shape change? Are you ready to be part of something that’s collaborative, creative and transformative?
Fabric is for you – let’s imagine new ways to care, together.
“We believe that it’s in our collective interest to take a proactive approach to nurture the talent and values that will lead us to tomorrow.”
– Claire Dufour, Fabric Host, Creative Dundee
Fabric: Creating Care is a creative peer-led journey run by Creative Dundee, bringing young people, creative practitioners and people working in health and community spaces together to explore, imagine and shape better ways to support young people.
Fabric isn’t a course or a training – it’s an informal creative space to connect where your voice, perspective and energy are what make this shared journey come alive. It’s free to attend, and this is the fifth Fabric we’ve held since 2016.
This year, Fabric will bring together a balanced group of around 20 people, including:
Across four day-long sessions between March and June 2026, we’ll explore how creativity, care and systems that currently support young people can be stronger, better shaped and more hopeful in Dundee.
Research shows that young people know that creativity, empathy, collaboration and care are essential skills for their future – yet these are too often missing from the spaces that are meant to support them. Fabric creates a peer-led space to take these insights seriously, by shaping ideas and practices together.
You can read more about this in our blog post, What our Future Needs Now? Young People Already Know.
Fabric will support you to build confidence, connections, skills and agency – giving you the chance to explore new creative approaches to health and wellbeing, and share your ideas with the people shaping services and making decisions.
Fabric is free to attend. Your time and energy is what you bring to the journey, where you will:
“I already knew Dundee was an incredible place, but spending time with the variety of awesome humans on this programme has deepened my appreciation and understanding of what the city and its people have to offer in creating a resilient community.”
– Shona Cherry, Fabric participant 2024/25, Dundee Changemakers Hub Manager
Fabric is open to people living in and around Dundee who want to shape better futures for young people’s mental health and wellbeing through creativity, care and collaboration.
We want the Fabric group to reflect the fabric of the city. Everyone’s welcome – whatever your background, identity or experiences, or regardless of your job role, creative practice or position in your community.
You might be a young person, worker, freelancer, volunteer, resident, carer, organiser or community leader – what matters most is your curiosity, care and desire to be part of shaping more supportive futures for young people.
We know the term ‘young people’ is broad, so when we say this we mean people aged 16 and over – this includes people in their late teens and in their 20s, and anyone who feels connected to youth experiences, community care and hopeful futures.
We want Fabric to be a welcoming space where everyone can take part comfortably. We’re always happy to talk through any access adjustments or support you might need. You can read about our commitment to access and equity and our access rider template.
Each session combines conversations, creative activities and reflection at interesting youth-led spaces across Dundee. You’ll also take part in a study visit to Edinburgh.
This is a shared learning space, meaning we’ll work as a group and co-create some elements as we go. The structure we’ll use is:
You’ll get behind-the-scenes access to various community spaces and take a field trip to Edinburgh to visit a youth project and the Scottish Parliament, with an opportunity to meet staff and representatives – exploring how care, creativity and change happen in real life.
Throughout the sessions, we’ll be weaving together a living record of what supports us, what fails us and what we’re building together. We’ll creatively capture experiences, insights, reflections and evolving understanding.
Day 1: Safety and Belonging
Date: Fri 23 March 2026
Times: 9:30am–5pm
Locations: Dundee – Feeling Strong, Hot Chocolate Trust
Focus: Belonging, creative expression and emotional literacy for young people
Day 2: Care in our Communities
Date: Thu 30 April 2026
Times: 9:30am–5pm
Locations: Dundee – Art Angel, Boomerang Community Centre
Focus: Reimagining youth provision and creative approaches to mental health
Day 3: From Experience to Influence
Date: Fri 29 May 2026
Times: 9.30am–5pm
Location: Dundee – DCA
Focus: Understanding policies and decision-making with support from Scottish Parliament staff
Day 4: Imagining What’s Possible
Date: Tue 23 June 2026
Times: 8:30am–6pm
Locations: Edinburgh – field trip to the Scottish Parliament and study visit to a youth project
Focus: Expanding our perspective and learning from others
Partners include: Feeling Strong, Hot Chocolate Trust, Comics Youth, Art Angel, Boomerang Community Centre, Room To Be, How It Felt, RSPB Wild Dundee (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), CAMHS Tayside (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and PACT at the Scottish Parliament (Participation and Communities Team), and more to be announced
We know that applications are unpaid labour so we’ve kept our application form short, and we welcome applications in writing, audio, video, or in another way that you would prefer.
Please note: all applicants need to complete the application form – there is a section that asks you to provide some information about yourself, and then a question that lets you select the way you would like to apply.
There are four questions to answer:
Each of these question in the application form has a word limit of 250 words or a time limit of 2 minutes if applying via audio/video.
If you have any questions or want to talk through your application, get in touch with Fabric host, Claire Dufour: claire@creativedundee.com.
Applications close: Mon 9 March 2026 at 9am.
Fabric is led by Creative Dundee, and delivered in partnership with healthcare, community and creative organisations, with support from the Participation and Communities Team at the Scottish Parliament, as part of Creative Minds – a creative youth mental health project designed by Creative Dundee with project funding from NHS Tayside Charitable Foundation.
Creative Minds brings together young people who are aged 16 years and over, healthcare professionals and creative practitioners to respond to youth mental health challenges – building resilience, amplifying lived experience and equipping young people to shape the systems that support them.
Through collaboration, experimentation and shared leadership – and by centring creativity as a driver of health innovation – Creative Minds enables creative, inclusive and community-rooted approaches that prioritise prevention and collective care. More to come soon!
Claire is a people-lover, proud mum and creative thinker who has called Dundee home for the past 15 years. She’s passionate about bringing people together to share ideas, learn from each other and imagine a better future.
Since joining Creative Dundee in 2015, she’s designed and led projects including Ampersand+ (peer support), CULTIVATE (creativity for climate justice), Press Change (youth journalism) and Fabric – a collective journey that equips and connects people to make a positive difference in Dundee, with many past participants still sharing creativity, care and ideas across the city.
“Fabric was a timely reminder to continue on the path of disruption to push for a more equal and sustainable world which we all deserve.”
– Feedback from Fabric participant 2024/25
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