Our Plans and Initiatives
Our current plans and ongoing initiatives that support our goals are set out below. Click below to go straight to a particular item.
Wellbeing libraries in local schools
Activity purpose: This activity is supporting our goals in schools to raise awareness of mental health issues and to signpost young people to information, resources and support.
DETAILS: It is our intention to provide a mental health library for each secondary school in our local area, so that information a young person might need is readily available and easily accessible for them. We aim to add our voice to the clamour advocating the normalisation of mental health by providing a range of leaflets on topics such as making friends, losing someone you care about, transition at Year 7 and 11, depression, anxiety, and self harm. We believe in the power of the story too and will be providing a range of fiction texts that explore mental health and well-being as well (A Monster Calls, The Illustrated Mum, The Perks of Being a Wall flower for example).
We have five installed. We are looking for three more in 2022.
UPDATE: We are working with local schools to determine the most appropriate sites for the three Wellbeing libraries planned for 2022.
Wellbeing Care Packages
Activity purpose: This activity is supporting our goals to signpost young people to information, resources and support, and to be a visible, proactive and positive presence in our local community.
DETAILS: We have worked with partner organisations who have identified young people to us, going through great challenges with their wellbeing.
We asked ourselves: What can we do to help these young people (and their families) build resilience and encourage and motivate them to pursue a more positive path to overcome the wellbeing difficulties they face ?
Together with our partner organisations we created a ‘wellbeing care package’ for three young people facing such challenges. Each package was made up of relevant reading materials (books), chocolates, pens, leaflets and other personalised items. Our intention was to:
- Demonstrate to the young person that others cared about them
- Encourage self-care for the young person
- Signpost the young person to materials and groups that would support, advise and encourage them on a more positive path for their mental fitness and wellbeing.
Encouraging responses to our three test scenarios, have meant that the Will Garvey Trust Foundation are now looking to run a pilot in 4Q23 with partner organisations (who will identify and select young people that could benefit from a ‘wellbeing care package”). If the pilot is successful we will roll out a larger programme in our local community in 2023/24.
The trustees have approved the pilot project and grants have been secured from two sources (Derbyshire County Council Small Grants Scheme and the Vernon Robert Baumer Foundation).
UPDATE:
Our pilot project is up and running and so far we have delivered 11 Care Packs to young people and families in our local area.
We are working, in the first instance, with EMA Training in Derby. Referrals are made by apprentice mentors and staff who provide anonymous information about each young person. They also try to select one item that is personal to each individual. This might be a voucher for a particular shop, something relating to a hobby, or simply something the young person might enjoy. The Care Packs consist of a range of items including ‘smellies’, a candle, something delicious to eat, a book, and mindfulness colouring, along with a postcard and a trinket designed by one of our volunteers, Emma Jane Bourne (Sweet Pea Designs). 100% of recipients agreed that the items in the Care Pack were helpful and one recipient said “I felt as though I was being thought about outside of just talking to someone and the care package actually helped me to find a new way to help myself relax”.
This project wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Derbyshire County Council Small Grants Scheme, and the Vernon Robert Baumer Foundation and we are grateful to their support of the project.
Local schools
Activity purpose: This activity is supporting our goal to signpost young people to information, resources and support.
DETAILS: Essentially we want to do the work that headteachers, Mental Health Leads, individual teachers and pastoral staff all want to do, but simply don’t have the time or the energy to do. As secondary school teachers ourselves we know only too well the demands placed on every member of a school’s staff and recognise that providing information, delivering CPD or running projects to improve the mental health and well-being of students and staff is often one plate too many to spin. Teaching staff are too often underappreciated and their commitment to their professional undervalued. So, we want to provide the service they need to allow them to respond to the needs of their particular pupils that will enable them whilst they get on with marking, planning, delivering lessons (and the many other jobs they also provide as part of this). This will not only improve the well-being of students, and staff, across the school but improve outcomes for students as they prepare for post 16 life.
UPDATE: We have begun contacting local Heads of School and School Principles to offer our workshops and awareness campaign. We want to work alongside schools, plugging the gaps they have, in ensuring all students receive the message that talking is good, self-care is just looking after yourself properly, and they know where they can go for the support, advice and/or help they need.
We have recently delivered Wellbeing Workshops Broomfield Hall,
Derby College.
Students at Broomfield on the Pathway to Learning
might have been a little nervous to start with but soon got into the swing of
things and felt comfortable enough to share their experiences with Jo, Julie,
and Emma. They had already done some work around mental health and emotional
wellbeing and the two workshops they participated in consolidated this
learning. They even took part in some mindful breathing. The feedback from
staff was amazing and beyond anything we might have expected. One of the
students had been using the notebook we gave to write down all his thoughts and
told his teachers that this helped to work things out. Another student felt
confident enough after the workshops to confide in his teacher that he needed
help and has since been referred for further support.
And others had been practicing the mindful breathing
and were already enjoying the benefits.
We are really looking forward to working with the
staff and students at Broomfield Hall again soon as well as other establishments.
Nottingham Trent University Partnership
Activity purpose: This activity is providing the WTF with access to research and consulting resources to support us in carrying out all of our goals more effectively.
DETAILS: We are very proud to have partnered with Nottingham Trent University Graduate Internship Scheme to undertake research and consulting work to support the aims of the Will Garvey Trust Foundation.
We will also make use of the offers of assistance from Nottingham University undergraduate students who, independently of formal university programmes, make their time and efforts available to us to support our objectives.
UPDATE: Our initial piece of research/consultancy has been accepted by the NTU Graduate Scheme.
We are delighted that Leonor Goncalves is taking on our first piece of work.
Leo is working with us for 6 weeks, as part of Nottingham Trent University’s Graduate Scheme. Her role is to carry out a literature review across mental health and suicide. The aim is to look at current data and what it shows us about changes in attitudes and behaviour, and the barriers to accessing help, for different age groups. Leo will present her findings and recommendations to trustees during the final week of the scheme.
WTF Awareness materials (Stirland Patterson Group)
Activity purpose: This activity will provide us with the valuable WTF materials and merchandise to be able to make our presence/activities/messages visible in our community and thus enable us to achieve our goals more effectively.
DETAILS: We are very fortunate to have Stirland Patterson Group as a partner who will help us determine and produce the printed materials and merchandise that we require to not only help us to raise awareness of the Will Garvey Trust Foundation but also enable us to get our important messages out to the local communities.
Erewash CVS Voluntary Action Group
EREWASH VOLUNTARY ACTION CVS LTD
Mission: Erewash Voluntary Action CVS works towards a caring and more inclusive society by developing and supporting individual and group voluntary action that responds to local community needs and wishes.
Activity purpose: This activity provides us with the capability to network with other charities as well as Erewash CVS itself; to obtain their support, guidance and experience to help us achieve our charity goals.
DETAILS: We intend to work with the Erewash CVS to participate in the key activities that it provides for groups like WTF. Below we set out what those are:
All CVS support, promote and develop local voluntary and community action through the following key functions:
Services and support
CVS promote the effectiveness of local voluntary and community groups by providing them with a range of services. These may include access to basic facilities, such as meeting rooms, photocopiers and ICT equipment or more involved services such as community accountancy and employment advice. CVS also support local groups through regular newsletters, training, funding advice and specialist services.
Liaison
As a focal point for the local voluntary and community sector, CVS encourage networking between individuals and groups within the sector, and between local groups and the statutory and private sectors. This allows local groups to learn from one another, establish contacts and work more effectively. CVS also help different communities to organise their own networking activity.
Ilkeston RUFC - 'Why Talking Fixes' sessions (Part 2)
Activity purpose: This activity is supporting our goals to work with local organisations and groups and to raise awareness of mental health issues, to signpost young people to information, resources and support, and to grow our presence in the local community.
DETAILS: Having worked with IRUFC during the 2019-20 season, it became clear that there was much more we could offer. So we have agreed to continue working alongside players, coaches and parents, to provide learning opportunities on a range of mental health and wellbeing topics. We will continue raising awareness, empowering the team to talk and equipping them with the skills to listen.
We’re already excited about the 2020-21 season and ready for kick off!
UPDATE: Currently, we are not able to talk further with Ilkeston RUFC given the Coronavirus pandemic. We will as soon as possible connect with Ilkeston RUFC to continue the dialogue and determine the best way forward.
Watch this space!
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