With your kind support, we will provide a series of 52 creative & community-based activities for adults living with mental ill-health in West Cheshire – in Chester, Ellesmere Port & Neston. These will include group coffee mornings, creative arts, wellbeing walks, & outdoor gardening sessions at Chapter’s allotment & community garden. All our activities are based around the 5 Steps to Wellbeing to ensure participants get a well-deserved wellbeing boost. The activities will help people to: - Build their confidence - Add structure to their day - Develop skills - Make connections with others - Improve their wellbeing levels - Reduce their feelings of anxiety & isolation The sessions will be led by our highly experienced Wellbeing Coaches & supported by volunteers with lived experience of mental ill-health, including current & former service users. All participants will be monitored as part of their individual wellbeing journey to show personal progress & development.

What we'll deliver:

• 52 community-based group activities for people living with mental ill-health

Why it's a great idea:

The activities will be open to anyone aged 18 or over, residing in West Cheshire or surrounding areas, who has been experiencing mental ill-health & is ready to engage with others. The activities will: Assist participants to identify activities that will have a positive impact on their mental health & wellbeing. Enable participants to achieve the 5 steps to wellbeing by engaging in safe group activities that focus on shared interests. Give people with mental ill-health the opportunity to make new friends & friendship groups. Provide opportunities for participants to try out new things in a safe/friendly space. Increase the self-worth & wellbeing levels of those who attend. Offer volunteering opportunities for people living with mental ill-health to help lead workshops. Signpost vulnerable people to other mental health services. Reduce isolation & loneliness for people living with mental ill-health. Reduce the risk of suicide & hospital admissions due to mental ill-health.

Steps to get it done:

• We will run 52 community-based group activities for people living with mental ill-health before 31st December 2022

We know there is a demand for our services and in 2020-2021 we supported 308 people, with service users and participants attending an average of 8 sessions. The need for community-based activities has been exacerbated by the impact of Covid-19. As a result, many of our service users now want to take part in face-to-face group activities, especially after 18 months of lockdown restrictions and isolation. Feedback from our previous activity sessions. ‘I was in a really terrible place, there was no structure to my weeks, I was just spiralling. My week now has a lot of structure, I feel much better than I used to.’ ‘Being outside, I think, always helps my mental health as well as having something to attend.’ ‘I volunteer for chapter as helping people not only makes them feel happier, it makes the world a more positive place and given the last year or two with the pandemic, we definitely need to do that.’ ‘The sessions saved me when I didn't realise how much I was drowning.’