The idea
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.’
