Sligo LEADER Partnership CLG. was successful in securing Healthy Ireland funding 2019 – 2020. The project is titled ‘Way’s to Wellness’.
Sligo LEADER SICAP Projects funded through Healthy Ireland
‘Way’s to Wellness’ falling under Goal 1: Increase the proportion of people who are healthy at all stages of life with a priority theme of Mental Health of Healthy Ireland Framework, targeting groups such as Older Adult, Asylum Seekers, Disadvantage women, Unemployed persons etc.
The ‘Way’s to Wellness’ programme is counteracting specific actions within the County Sligo LECP 2016-2021, some of these being Promote the five-a-day programme for wellbeing in community settings: connect, get active, notice, get involved and give and Utilise community development approached to develop measures to address isolation in the community through the SICAP programme and family support programmes.
The ‘Ways to Wellness’ programme is made of ‘Maxi’ and ‘Mini’ projects, which some have being implemented successfully and others due to take place within the next year. Below are a brief descriptions of the projects successfully ran and those who are due to commence next year 2021.
4 Ways to Wellness Workshops
- Ways to Wellness 1 – Disadvantaged Communities
Date to be confirmed for 2021. Further details will be posted in the new year.
- Ways to Wellness 2 – Unemployed Persons
This project was due to run October 2020 but now postponed until a later date is targeting unemployed people. The focus of the project is to help people suffering from anxiety due to unemployment or anxiety in relation to returning to the workforce. With Covid-19 making huge changes to the traditional work life as we know, the need for a project to help people recently being made unemployed or people who might have secured work but are anxious with returning due to Coivd-19 was now more and never essential. From there Life Coach Dr. Naimj Gambi developed two online workshops combatting anxiety surrounding unemployment and the anxiety around returning to work during a pandemic. Main focuses of the workshops is increasing awareness of existing services and learning new techniques for stress control/ anxiety.
The reasoning for postponement of the online workshop was due to low numbers registering. The registration has remained opened until sufficient numbers are met to run the workshops. Please see link for Information flyer for the workshops https://www.facebook.com/SligoLeader/photos/a.412783542096541/4626076144100572/.
- Way’s to Wellness 3 – New Communities
This project ran through July/ August 2020 targeted the new community group of Asylum Seekers and Refugees. The focus of the project was to work towards reducing Hygiene Poverty within this disadvantage group. Through liaising with numerous local services and organisations who work directly with Asylum Seekers and Refugees, we developed Hygiene Packs, which contained a number of essential hygiene products. The packs were sourced by Sligo LEADER and distributed to residents of the Direct Provision Centre’s. The packs was received with open arms, as essentials in most peoples life’s are seen as a luxury in others. This was a small step made in the helping towards reducing Hygiene Poverty within our most disadvantaged communities.
- Ways to Wellness 4 – Older Persons
This project ran through the course of September/ October 2020 targeted the group of Older adults with the main focus been Older Adult’s Nutrition. The project was implemented through a local radio station Ocean Fm, whereby a local Consultant Nutritionist Gabriel MacSharry designed a number of daily tips to be advertised over the course of the day for a number weeks. Alongside the daily tips, Gabriel also designed and facilitated nutritional talks once a week for 5 weeks on the popular daytime show Francie Boylan Show. The emphasis of the talks and daily tips was on preparing the body for winter, boosting immunity and increasing overall health. The nutritional talks are also available via podcast on Ocean FM’s website https://www.oceanfm.ie/shows/the-francie-boylan-show/. An evaluation report received from Ocean FM highlighted the success of the project, with them stating that it was one of the most interactive slot they have had, with hundreds of texts and phone calls coming in in relation to the Gabriel’s nutritional talks.