I was in Tower Hamlets last week, doing the thing I love best. I was running some face-to-face training for a great group of community volunteers who were planning to join the local NHS partnership as Wellbeing Changemakers. I was able to tailor a session for them using our learning about the Warm Welcome from the Ageing Better programme and my own knowledge of community group leadership. I hope it will help them on their way.
I want to share two things about the session which stood out to me as real reflections and great examples of GPM’s key successes.
Firstly – we’ve worked with the Healthy Island Partnership in Tower Hamlets for over 2 years now – I did a quick search which revealed our most recent email trail as ‘one of many’. Starting with some engagement online, they accessed some face-to-face training for their staff team around outreach friendly comms and creating a ‘Warm Welcome’. Since then, as they developed their ideas around increasing volunteer involvement, we’ve been working with them on delivering a bespoke face to face session to fit into a mini development series they were delivering themselves. That session last week went well, their team is really great and is already planning to repeat the recruitment and training cycle.
We’ve been fortunate to work with a number of organisations over the long term – some for the majority of the three years GPM has been operating, and it feels positive and rewarding to support people through the process of change. We set out wanting to achieve systems change and wondering how that might work with such a small team. We’ve still not managed to change the world, but going on that journey with some of the people we’ve worked with means we have managed to make a shift in some systems locally – we’ve really helped people to press the reset button. For all of us as Good Practice Mentors, being part of this process of sharing learning, supporting organisations as they develop ideas, and then being able to tailor future support to their needs, has been a rewarding way to work.
The second amazing thing was meeting the lovely group of people themselves, hearing about their commitment and the life stories which shone through as we shared learning and skills. It was a moment when we all shared learning, and it’s rare for us to run a session where we don’t learn something more ourselves. That might be a tip or practical technique – or it might be one of the life lessons I learned last week.
- For one of the participants, being supported into a job – just 2 hours a day as a playground supervisor – really had changed her life and improved her health. She was very clear that physical health symptoms vanished as her wellbeing improved and she is now passionate about sharing that experience in her community although she said she finds it a daunting prospect. She’s determined to try though, so the opportunity to support her, and see this group of volunteers come together as a team who can support each other, made me feel the trip to be there with them was very much worthwhile.
- For another volunteer, her experience in the Bangladeshi community locally meant she was passionate about drawing people together and helping people find out about opportunities to support each other locally, reducing the isolation a number of women in the community faced. She also admitted she was very nervous but knew she had to try.
These experiences demonstrate that improved social connection – and a sense of increased self-worth as a result of purpose – are things that can help people. It was humbling to meet people for whom this was happening in reality.
We meet lovely people like this almost every time we run a session – workers changing things in a community centre, social prescribers trying to get better at supporting lonely people, volunteers setting up social groups – and from all of them we learn tips we can pass on and those life story moments which change us and help us to support other people with similar aims to achieve what they seek.
Some of you might know that we don’t quite know what the future holds for GPM. We’re hopeful we will be able to continue our work to support people to feel more confident in their work with local communities. For now, we’re still here and if something in this blog has resonated with you, and you’re interested in finding out more about the GPM support that we can provide to your organisation, please do get in touch via GPM@syha.co.uk.
Jessica Duffy, Leeds Older People’s Forum