Collaborators
● Wellbeing Workshops Devon CIC
● Colebrook SW
● Memory Matters CIC
Collective’s aims and ideas
Wellbeing Workshops, Colebrook and Memory Matters will work together to produce and deliver dementia friendly and inclusive wellbeing workshops to the community. The workshops will aim to reduce anxiety around reintegrating into society after the lockdown, whilst also equipping those in attendance with the skills, knowledge and understanding to manage and maintain their own wellbeing throughout their lifespan. To achieve this, we will work together to produce a series of wellbeing workshops which embed elements of positive psychology. A recent report completed by the Lancet COVID-19 community recommends the use of positive psychology methods to improve wellbeing and positive emotions, as a low-cost evidence-based strategy which improves community wellbeing and increases positive emotions.
Throughout the pandemic and multiple lockdowns, mental health and wellbeing has been highlighted as a cause of concern and an area which needs to be focused on. During this time the community has become isolated, lonely, and anxious about leaving the house. Our series of in-person workshops will give these people a safe area to reintegrate into the community and develop their confidence, whilst also equipping them with the skills, knowledge and understanding to enable to manage their own wellbeing. Not only supporting them within the present time but also within the future.
We plan to deliver 12, 2-hour workshops across 6 weeks. One on a weekday and one on a weekend to make the workshops accessible for more people, in total we will aim to have 30-40 participants across both sites.
The workshops will include the following objectives, aims and topics. However, if there is a change within restrictions, we may alter the content to reflect this.
Objectives:
To begin to equip the community with the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to manage and maintain their own wellbeing.
Specific Workshop Aims:
• To reduce anxiety around reintegrating back into the community after lockdown
• To develop knowledge and understanding of how the pandemic has affected you as an individual and how you can use this to grow
• To give the community an opportunity to discuss and share their experiences within the pandemic
1. What is wellbeing and what does it mean to you? How did lockdown effect your wellbeing at the time and what challenges do you have going forward?
2. Reintegrating into the community – what emotions does this bring up for you? How can you manage these emotions?
3. Understanding yourself in the new world – identity focused – post traumatic growth
4. Happiness – what are your expectations, have they changed from before covid to now? what does happiness look like to you going forward?
5. Mindset – what mindset do you currently think you have? How can we use what we have learnt in the pandemic to shape and change this?
6. Final action plan for managing your wellbeing post-lockdown and being prepared the unknown
Throughout the workshops we will continually collect feedback and use this to help shape what we do and the content which we deliver. Also, at the beginning and the end of the workshops we will use a validated wellbeing questionnaire which will enable us to evaluate the impact of the workshops. We will also use the feedback to work out as a collective which direction we should take the workshops after the funding e.g. paid by participant workshops/look for further funding to continue with the workshops.
How will they work together to achieve this?
This will be the first time each of the organisations have worked together.
As part of this bid Colebrook SW will provide community premises, refreshments and staff to support the programme for 2hpw for 6 weeks. Colebrook SW will also market the programme through our social media, wellbeing hub, Colebrook’s support services and other networks as well as the diverse range of community members we work with. Memory matters will provide exploring dementia training, work with all organisations to ensure the workshops are dementia friendly, provide a warm, caring, friendly environment for workshops including refreshments and staffing for 2hpw over 6 weeks. As well as promoting this within the moments café as we want to start more groups/workshops, which are Dementia friendly and inclusive to all, and we feel this is a perfect place to start. Wellbeing workshops will plan, create, deliver and evaluate the bespoke workshops, whilst also networking with the community groups prior to starting the workshops to develop trust and confidence.
Both Memory Matters and Colebrook will also provide first-hand insight into the mentality and issues currently seen within the direct communities they are working with daily. This will enable Wellbeing Workshops to create and deliver impactful and relevant workshops to the communities. We will all work with together to measure and evaluate the impact that the workshops have had within the community. We have chosen to work together as each organisations morals and values align regarding our focus on wellbeing and improving mental health within the community. Also, each organisation has a specific speciality which will help support us to deliver high quality wellbeing content and have an impact on the communities we work within.
Our collective operates on shared values – (People-focused, Compassionate, Open, Positive, Creative & Fun) and we believe this is an amazing opportunity for us to create positive change throughout Plymouth. We want to develop our offer to the community by starting this project to create a stable support network for people in the community and enabling them to reintegrate back into their community after lockdown, with help to manage their own wellbeing going forward.
During the first round, POP members will be asked to advise you. What advice would be most helpful?
- Promotion of the workshops within the wider community
- Measuring/evaluating the impact of what we do
