A CREATIVE writing project - including trips and workshops - is being launched for over-60s from minority groups in Copeland.

West Lakes Writers' Residency is part of the region’s new Elements festival which celebrates age and diversity.

It involves a variety of partners such as Age UK West Cumbria, Florence Arts Centre and the Wordsworth Trust, and is supported by Arts Council England and Copeland Community Fund.

Renowned poet Pascale Petit will lead the seven-week programme in Egremont, which is designed to nurture participants’ writing skills. The writing created in the process will be featured in reading events during the festivals and also included in a final publication which will launch at the end of the festival.

Pascale, who recently returned from a research trip to the Amazon, said: “I’ll help people develop their writing – poetry and short stories – and think they will surprise themselves.

“We’ll bring in ideas from other cultures, especially those that are more open to nature. The people of the Amazon learn from the trees, plants and animals all around them.

“Closer to home, the tradition of Wordsworth and the Romantic poets began with him rowing the lakes and walking the hills and listened to the way the waters and landscape were speaking to him.

“By this stage in life people have experienced a great deal, so I want them to delve into their own lives and write about the things of deep importance to them.”

The day trips will include a visit to Dove Cottage and places that inspired William and Dorothy Wordsworth, as well as many other authors who are connected to the Cumbria and its landscape – such as Norman Nicholson and Sir Hugh Walpole.

The aim is for Pascale, who is 62, to be an “enabler” for people with disabilities or from minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) backgrounds.

Peta Leigh, health and well-being manager for Age UK West Cumbria, said: “We absolutely agree that there is a need for more events and activities to brighten up older people’s days in this part of the world.

"We’ve been trying to be as inclusive as possible in our work, and festivals like this would contribute greatly to raise the awareness of diversity in the older population.”

The workshops, will be held at Florence Arts Centre, Egremont. To book a place, by August 8, go to www.elementsfest.comcall-for-participants/