Sharing In Time In the Aboriginal culture, sacred narratives of creation connecting people to ancestors through land and time are called songlines. It’s an idea which suggests the past and present are one and the same and the future is now. There are strikingly similar belief-systems to be found in cultures on the African, Asian …
Navigating Stress We are designed to cope with stress in short bursts. However, with prolonged exposure, our body’s physiological system pivots into survival mode and acts as a kind of tachometer, keeping the score along our chosen path towards either illness or sustained wellbeing. In this state, we are prone to subconsciously triggered reactions that …
Re-humanisation of Work So, Coronavirus has accelerated an already emergent phenomenon that is rapidly becoming part of the much-heralded “new normal”; digitally-enabled remote working. This much is very clear by now, but who will decide what’s normal in the post-crisis world? Give yourself a pat on the back if you thought, “middle-class, middle-aged white men” …
One of the most rewarding things about working with someone like Olive is we inevitably get to know each other. That’s the nature of the learning process; you chat and discover those apparently insignificant things that somehow knit themselves together to form the fabric of a shared experience. It’s a similar dynamic to the conversations …
In our experience of working with isolated older adults, a number of factors recur with notable regularity. Chief amongst them is a deep-rooted desire to be heard and to connect. People frequently tell us “no one understands me” and with that, there often comes a sense of frustration. Following on from our Happy Hub experiment, …
The world-wide Maker movement has become a well-established phenomenon over the past decades. Few would deny that hands-on creativity is a good thing. The visceral process of making stuff is powerful energy that affects us and those around us in equal measure. Our most recent prototype (delivered over 18 months in Kings Heath, Birmingham UK) …
It’s About Navigation In this blog, we share what worked well (and indeed what did not) about the 12-month long social prescribing pilot we designed and delivered in Kings Heath, in the form of the 7 citizen engagement “tools” that participants rated the most impactful. We also try and share “why” and “where next” in …
A YEAR OF LEARNING Gratitude was the chosen theme of the first Happy Hub event of 2019 for good reasons. It was what Members said they wanted to talk about to mark the New Year. Quite frankly, a number of them literally didn’t expect to still be alive on 28th January. It was also the …
Mickey and Mum What does “gratitude” have to do with current government policy and the future of health and social care services in England? Possibly, more than we have allowed ourselves to believe thus far in the appreciation of less formal community models. Our capacity to express collective gratitude, especially through times of adversity, is …
GRATITUDE, GIVING AND SERENDIPITY During the January Hub, we introduced a new feature into the service model; Wellbeing Pledge Cards. It builds on the popular bullet journals that some members have been using to diarise their wellbeing journey. The cards will circulate amongst the Members and Makers and serve to capture and share, in story form, …
