ROOT & BRANCH WESTMILL 

One off gift to support with the cost of living crisis

1) Dedicated staff time: Physical Health Lead 3h/week @ £12/hour = 1728 plus on-costs. This person would raise awareness of the importance of cardiovascular health within and beyond Root and Branch, ....more

1) Dedicated staff time: Physical Health Lead 3h/week @ £12/hour = 1728 plus on-costs. This person would raise awareness of the importance of cardiovascular health within and beyond Root and Branch, coordinate and facilitate activities and training of beneficiaries and volunteers, source resources and equipment, establish and strengthen partnerships in the locality to improve access to community groups and services, make referrals to OCC lifestyle services and monitor engagement, outcomes and impact. 2) Equipment & clothing £1000: In order to enhance our offer, provide a range of equipment to support the range of activities and provide a sustainable variety of options available to beneficiaries and volunteers. These would be stored and used on site. eg. pedometers, Nordic walking poles, garden games such as badminton, croquet, boules, yoga mats. In some instances, beneficiaries may require financial support for suitable clothing or equipment to enable participation and maintain health and safety, e.g. trainers/walking shoes, waterproofs 3) Instructors to lead 6-week taster courses: Following successful and popular sessions held in the past, further funding would support qualified instructors to run activity sessions on site. This would improve choice and access, whilst ensuring health and safety. Volunteers may also access sessions for their own health and wellbeing. e.g. Nordic walking, Yoga/Pilates, Tai Chi, Fencing, seated exercise @£25/h 4) 4 x Workshops : cooking and healthy eating, reducing stress through relaxation @£450/ 6 week course 5) Contribution to fees for external exercise classes or gym memberships or personal equipment and occasional transport for those without own transport wishing to access activities on site or in the locality.

Grant to Root and Branch

The funding will support adults with mental health difficulties using therapeutic activities such as; gardening metalwork woodwork craft work and cookery. The aim is to improve wellbeing and help to ....more

The funding will support adults with mental health difficulties using therapeutic activities such as; gardening metalwork woodwork craft work and cookery. The aim is to improve wellbeing and help to build social connections.

Grant to Root and Branch Westmill meeting the additional costs of adapting services, premises or implementing other safety measures in response to the Covid pandemic.

To support the recovery and next steps of adults with mental health conditions through therapeutic gardening and craft activities.

We will employ specialist tutors to offer courses on Wednesdays (a day we are normally not open for service) at our own venue and transport to those needing it in order to attend. Our manager already ....more

We will employ specialist tutors to offer courses on Wednesdays (a day we are normally not open for service) at our own venue and transport to those needing it in order to attend. Our manager already works in the office on Wednesdays and our landlord is happy for us to use the building with no increase on the rent, so little further expense is incurred from our general budget. Other options include extending the current day to offer provision during the afternoons for a further group of beneficiaries (as trialled during our recent ESF funding) E.g. running a course from 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. after the normal activity session is finished. Another use of funds that has proved successful during our short ESF grant period has been to arrange, administrate, accompany and/or provide funds for our beneficiaries to attend a course offered in the local community. If funds allow we would like to continue this as it creates introductions and possibilities for further community engagement between our beneficiaries and the group/ tutor or venue Additional information from email: "If successful in our application we intend to open on an additional day of the week to offer courses and classes with local specialist tutors in a range of subjects. These activities would utilise our well-equipped facilities which include a craft room, wood workshop, forge, garden and kitchen. We also have the wider use of the farm where the project is situated. Faringdon Town Council have also offered the use of several rooms above the library, where activity could occur if this alleviated any transport issues for participants. Stakeholder analysis has shown us that residents in and around Faringdon suffering from mental health difficulties are particularly isolated from supportive groups, with currently no service offering support of any kind in the town. We would be keen to take an opportunity to provide some course activity within the town centre for this reason. Courses will range from being one-off day workshops, to 6 or 8 week courses requiring beneficiaries to sign up in advance and commit to the whole course. Some courses will be accredited and support service users looking to build confidence towards employment and some will be non-accredited. We have a range of ideas, including some that we have trialled before and proved beneficial. These include Stained Glass, Metalwork levels 1 & 2, Jewellery making, Cabinet-making, Wood turning, Green woodwork, Cookery, Basic Skills/Literacy, IT skills, Horticultural qualifications, Employability skills, Creative Writing, GCSE Maths/English, Anger management, Mindfulness meditation, Art, Floristry, Walking/Nature-based activity. We intend to reduce loneliness and isolation within our community by allowing greater access to our service and facilities through these course based activities. This might mean that an existing beneficiary is able to come to the project twice a week, alleviating both their loneliness and helping to restore their well-being and create a positive impact on their mental health. It will also mean that we will be able to accept a greater number of beneficiaries to the project as we will be, in essence, creating a 4th day of activity. The courses will provide an opportunity to be part of a group, engage in teamwork, enjoy a sense of community and a safe space to learn and recover. It is anticipated that by participating in courses at Root and Branch, beneficiaries will gain greater confidence to access mainstream community activities, such as groups, training, college courses etc. How we will measure our success: We use the Mental Health Recovery Star every 6 months with all beneficiaries, which monitors well-being in 10 areas of life. The recovery star scores in the 10 different areas of a persons life are inputted into a database so that we are able to measure and monitor progress. The 10 areas are as follows: Managing Mental Health, Physical Health and Self Care, Living Skills, Social Networks, Work, Relationships, Addictive Behaviour, Responsibilities, Identity and Self Esteem and Trust and Hope. It is anticipated that a key measure of success for this grant activity would be improved scores, particularly but not exclusively, in the area of Social Networks. In addition to this we use a Progress Review sheet at the 6 monthly review meeting, which can also be updated between meetings. This records all new activity, achievements, soft and hard outcomes, both inside and outside of the project. For those participants working with our Employment and Development Coach, we have Coaching records akin to Learning Plans and separate, additional Progress Review paperwork to monitor how people are managing to achieve their goals. We will record all qualifications gained, courses completed and monitor how the grant activity has directly empowered people to engage in further community involvement in order to continue to relieve loneliness and isolation after the end of the grant period. Routine stakeholder analysis will contribute to our ability to capture successes during the grant period and make adjustments if needed."

To support the recovery and next steps of adults with mental health conditions through therapeutic gardening and craft activities.