Thriving Communities was excited to receive the news that it was awarded a National Lottery Community Fund award of £9,850 to support the roll-out of an aspirational programme of wellbeing events and activities under the umbrella term “Stop Surviving, Start Thriving“.

The programme will support the promotion of the PERMA model of Positive Psychology, by providing 15 in-person and 10 online sessions to empower people and communities to become more healthy, happy and resilient.

Some of the in-person sessions include warming Soup4TheSoul wellbeing themed workshops incorporating a warm space with soup, roll and refreshments, mandala and meditation (with content varying according to the specific theme covered). Other activities will include Walk ‘n’ Talks, Walking Meditations, Qi Gong (mindful movement connected to the breath) and Forest Bathing (“shinrin yoku”). We’ll also be trialing a new Menopause Wellbeing in Action workshop to help women thrive through the menopause transition.

Residents in South Wales will benefit from this pilot project as we take the sessions to different community venues. The plan is to modify the Soup4TheSoul format so that these workshops can be delivered online as well.

To ensure that the needs of local community members are met, we have been seeking views and suggestions for activities and events in the daytime and evenings/weekends to cater for as many people as possible. This has been possible, because Thriving Communities has a very active Happiness & Wellbeing group of over 800 members to date. Views have been sought in person and online through the company’s social media (Facebook) networks. For example, people voiced that they were struggling with guilt, shame and low self-esteem, therefore we designed a ‘Self Love’ event. This has been very well received to date (as of April 2023, 4 of these have been delivered to varying audiences).

The Lottery Fund is also facilitating new collaborations with mental health groups, such as You’re Not Alone (a walk and talk group for men in the Brynmawr region of South Wales) and another men’s walk and talk group based in Abertridwr, Caerphilly.

If you’re interested in hearing more about what we offer, visit our What We Offer page for more details or go to the Events tab to see what’s coming up next in your local area.