Women in our Bridlington service suggested there was a need for a women only group, so the team there decided to design and deliver a Women’s Wellbeing Group. The aims of the group were to help women in recovery from alcohol and/or drug misuse to build self-esteem, self-confidence, build support networks and learn skills to help enhance and improve their quality of daily living.
Using the 5 Ways to Wellbeing (an evidence-based approach to improving wellbeing) as the framework for our individual sessions we designed an 8 week programme. The activities within the sessions included health training, relaxation techniques, exercising and financial management to name but a few.
So, we knew we there was a need and a demand and we knew we could fill it. The next step was to raise the funds to run the group. Alison Tubbs and her team embarked on a Dry January sponsorship and Jenny Rayner submitted applications to various Trusts, both of which managed to raise the necessary funds to run the group, we were delighted!
We even managed to secure some additional funding for our women to complete a Level 2 Food Safety in Catering Course.
We are now proud to announce that we have completed our pilot group with a resounding success.
Alison Tubbs (Practice Lead) said “We have really enjoyed running this group; in particular being able to encourage and support the group members to begin to value and care for themselves. A lot of fun was had too. The positive feedback we received from the participants will help us to raise more money to run further groups so that others can benefit in the same way”.
The feedback and results received has been hugely positive with 100% of the women attending reporting that their self confidence, psychological health and overall quality of life had been improved as a result of the group.
“thank you for all your hard work and encouragement over the past 8 weeks, to be involved in such a brilliant activity, away from the usual hum drum of life has giving me a real opportunity to experience things that would not normally ‘come our way’. It has been really positive for me” Anon; member of the womens group
We found from the feedback that many women enjoyed the arts and crafts workshops and would love to do more. This has spurred us on to search for specific funds to make this happen! We also have exciting plans to launch a Mens Group with a similar format and also run our Womens Group again next year. Thank you to all those involved in making this happen!
You can see more photos on our facebook by clicking here
Published 17th November 2014
