Lapidus News

Due to the high number of applications, we have decided to close this job advert. Thank you for your interest!

Location: Working from home
Date / time: January 2024 – open ended contract, 5- 8 hours a week (20 to 32 hours a month)
Role type: Freelance Part-time
Salary: £20 an hour

About this job opportunity

Writing can be a powerful tool for healing and personal growth. Lapidus exists to support people who work with words, written or spoken, to promote good wellbeing and mental health. Our members include writers, health workers, counsellors, therapists, teachers and more.

Lapidus International is seeking multiple organised and experienced administrators to support the company with a variety of administrative tasks. We are looking for enthusiastic individuals with previous experience in a communications, social media, community management and website database management.

Lapidus has no fixed office. The majority of this role will be home-based and delivered online, via email and video conferencing. Current staff and voluntary board members are based around the UK. We will accept international applications.

Lapidus is committed to equal opportunities and encourages equality, diversity and inclusion.

We welcome applications from people who identify as Black, Asian or from a Minority Ethnic background as well as from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Reviewing and revising the Lapidus code of ethics has been interesting and a challenge, reminding us about the power of words, their meanings, misunderstandings and how we make ourselves understood.

The sub-group delegated to do this work quickly realised that discussion on what is meant by ethics, the relevance and authority of an ethical code when applied to Lapidus was not straightforward or an exact fit for all members.  We believe that this revised ethical code is applicable to all Lapidus members. 

Below are three opportunties for funding from the Centre of Arts and Wellbeing at the University of Brighton. Have you been thinking about looking for funding for a project or event? Now might be your chance.

And don't forget, if you want to pitch your idea and get feedback from your Lapidus peers before you submit, you can always attend a Creativity Cafe event, run by Dr Jess Moriarty.

Find out more about the funding opportunities here:

Lapidus International is seeking an organised and self-driven candidate for our Community Support Administrator role. We are looking for an enthusiastic individual with previous experience in a community support role, preferably with social media and website content management experience. In this role, the candidate would be responsible for communicating with the writing for wellbeing community, and helping to develop and share engaging content and resources which are relevant to our members.

Have you had a chance to read the first issue of the fab new Lapidus Magazine? It’s full of stories, pictures and articles by and for Lapidus members.

We are looking for the next issue to feature YOUR writing for wellbeing challenges: issues you’ve had with running groups or issues with confidentiality or offending other people with your autobiographical writing.  Please send us your dilemmas and we will ask the community for answers so we can all learn something. In addition, we would love to have your articles or ideas for features, reviews, letters and helpful advice or tips about writing for wellbeing.

In case you missed it, we launched our second Lapidus International Research and Innovation Community (LIRIC) journal last month (and you can read it here).

This issue is jam-packed full of research articles about writing for wellbeing, including pieces such as:

- Poetry Therapy: A Doorway to Understanding and Alleviating Loneliness  by Geri Chavis,

- Creating Space to Write and Grow Spiritually: A Qualitative Inquiry  by Janet Kuhnke

- The Autism Sonnets: Explaining Myself to Myself  by Sean Erin Moores

... and many more!

We have no plans to stop at a second issue. That is why we are happy to announce that the submission window for articles is now open for anyone who wants to be a part of the third LIRIC journal.

The Lapidus International Research and Innovation Community Journal is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal.

Our aim is to foster debate that can support the growing acknowledgement of the written and spoken word in supporting mental and physical health and wellbeing.

We publish articles, essays and reviews by academics, writers and clinical and cultural practitioners from diverse perspectives who use writing in any number of different contexts to this effect.

Margate Bookie have a special offer for Lapidus members. On Sunday 23 November at 1pm at Turner Contemporary, Margate, you can apply the science of happiness to creative writing, and join two experts to explore how mindfulness can enhance your storytelling powers.

Call for practitioners, researchers and PGR students researching:

• Hunger and food poverty
• Gender and gender equality
• Decent work and economic growth
• Partnerships for sustainability

…become an author in the world´s largest editorial project on sustainable development, "Encyclopedia of the Sustainable Development Goals".

We are seeking expressions of interest from individuals, groups and organisations in hosting a workshop as part of a new project, Day of Access, which explores place-awareness.

We are delighted to invite you join us at our online international consultation for research funded by the TS Eliot Foundation!

Our aspiration is to co-create a new creative practice framework with a diverse group of professionals including words for wellbeing practitioners, health professionals, psychologists, teachers, counsellors, social workers, and educators across all levels.

Great news! Lapidus International has managed to arrange a deal with Balens to insure your work as practitioners in writing for wellbeing. This insurance will give you peace of mind if you are running writing groups or selling your services as it covers three areas:

* Professional Insurance. This covers alleged malpractice, such as a complaint about your practice and where there may have been a breach of your professional duties.

* Public liability. This covers accidental injuries to third parties, and third party damages.

* Product liability. This covers accidental injury to third parties caused by your products. This category may not seem that relevant for us, but in cases where members combine writing with other activities this may be very useful.

The Educating Creatively conference is a brand new creative conference for education, cultural and creative professionals, teachers, artists and practitioners. The conference will explore and celebrate creative education, incorporating cultural practice into education, the study of creative practices, and the connection between those and wellbeing. This will be a space to bring together creative and education practitioners to celebrate, share and learn.Conference is in Chester at Storyhouse 

CALL FOR PAPERS NOW OPEN UNTIL MARCH 31st! Submit below.

I’m a third-year student carrying out research on the potential links between Vedic Meditation (VM), Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP) and emotional wellbeing. I’m looking for a practitioner of Vedic Meditation (VM) – preferably someone who is at the intermediate level - to volunteer to participate in my MSc dissertation.

As part of its centenary in 2019, the Forestry Commission is calling on the nation to write about what trees and forests mean to them this Valentine’s Day.

Lapidus Scotland is seeking a Creative Project Manager to take forward its project ‘Words Work Well For Health and Wellbeing’, a programme of writing, storytelling and art activities and for wellbeing throughout Glasgow for people with long-term and often complex health conditions in a range of inspiring and healing settings facilitated by experienced writers. We have received funding from Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership via the Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund to continue and extend this project for a further two years (2019 to 2021).

As part of celebrations to mark its centenary in 2019, the Forestry Commission has launched a new writing competition to diversify nature writing.

Free to enter, the Spread the Word Life Writing Prize run in association with Goldsmiths Writers’ Centre, aims to find the best life writing from emerging writers from across the UK. The Prize defines life writing as ‘intended to be true’, reflects someone’s own life journey or experiences and is not fiction.

Grimm & Co is Yorkshire’s only Apothecary to the Magical. It’s an exciting project with a shop-front premises in Rotherham, offering creative writing workshops for children and young people. The first time I visited, as a potential volunteer, I was given the same experience as each new participant gets:  the secret doors opened and I was ushered through into the writers’ space. I tell you, it’s magical.