https://www.socialprescribingnetwork.com/blog/connecting-conversations-jo-ward
Published by the Social Prescribing Network on 1 July 2025, Connecting Conversations – Jo Ward profiles Ward’s work at the intersection of social prescribing, women’s health, maternity, education and culture. She describes joining the Network in 2016 and her involvement in developing the Social Prescribing Concordat for Creative Health and the national Wellbeing by Design handbook.
The article explores how social prescribing can address inequalities in women’s health and maternity. She highlights The Holding Time Project as a key creative health intervention in Cheshire and Merseyside, using mothers’ stories, photography, audio, exhibitions and writing workshops to challenge breastfeeding myths, amplify women’s voices and create lasting community resources.
Ward describes how, in 2021, NHS partners invested in Lisa Creagh and The Holding Time Project to address chronically low breastfeeding rates and what she characterises as a negative breastfeeding culture. Mothers across Cheshire and Merseyside were invited to take part in video interviews, workshops and a photo shoot, creating material across audio, video, animation and still photography.
She explains that this content developed into audio trails, the touring I See You exhibitions and Hear Me Roar writing workshops, helping to dispel breastfeeding myths and bring reproductive health issues into public conversation. Ward also notes that Google Ads helped extend Holding Time’s reach significantly.