New project will help Peterborough young people mentally bounce back from Covid stresses

The project, called Resilience Rising, is being launched in Peterborough to support people aged 16-25 and equip them with key life skills to help them adjust to the ‘new normal’ – resilience, mental wellbeing, leadership, confidence and problem solving.

It is being funded by Peterborough-based BGL Group as part of the company’s response to the coronavirus outbreak which has seen them support community causes focussed on the areas around its offices.

Founded in 1992, BGL Group has grown from 30 to almost 3,000 people and is a leading digital distributor of insurance and household financial services, best known for their Compare the Market Meerkats.

As a part of its community focus, the company has granted £2,500 to Soul Happy to lead the project. Soul Happy is a not-for-profit organisation set up with local practitioners, therapists and motivational speakers focussed on community wellbeing and sustainability, with services from hypnotherapy and diet management, to transformation coaching.

Working mostly online with experts from Soul Happy, a group of six young ‘resilience leaders’ will be trained to help shape the project and create a toolkit for resilience for local young people which, when complete, will be available across Peterborough.

The project is now recruiting the six young ‘resilience leaders’. Each will have the opportunity to work online with Soul Happy practitioners to develop the programme and benefit from an in-depth skills assessment, personalised coaching and mindfulness training to focus on their own personal development.

Project lead Karen Igho explained: “We will work with the young people to discover their needs then support them to create a program around these.”

Karen said: “We are looking for people with an enthusiastic nature, who care about creating a better future for themselves and others, who are keen to learn and look at life from an holistic perspective. They will need to be able to commit two to three hours per week (we will be flexible on days and times to suit them) and who will be keen to cascade what they learn out to their peers. We want to recruit people from a diverse background and ideally have a mix of people from different religions, genders and countries.”

She went on: “Training will depend on what they think they need, at the start of the project they will be given an in depth survey to identify their needs, these could be around controlling stress and anxiety, perhaps using meditation or breathing techniques. They could be taught communication techniques and/or critical thinking, or they may wish to learn some basic principles of mental health first aid.”

Karen is an experienced team manager and workshop leader and will provide bespoke training sessions working in conjunction with the young people being targeted to ensure maximum, lasting engagement and they will all be provided with mindfulness sessions.

Soul Happy founder Kim Coley said: “The current pandemic and the wider health and systemic impacts of Covid-19 are hitting many quite hard, not least young people. It’s vital we equip our youth with more resilience and wellbeing support to not only bounce back, but to thrive. This is an extremely uncertain time and this project will help young people with self-awareness, wellbeing tools, and more to face future challenges in a constructive way.

“Led by young people and supported by experts, this project will create a roadmap to resilience for people aged 16 to 25. After all, they are the ones we’ll rely on to lead us in the future.”

Karen added: “Young people are particularly vulnerable to the social and emotional impacts of coronavirus for many reasons. They are feeling unmotivated, tired and bored, some are struggling with pre-existing mental health issues. Some may feel anxious about contracting the virus or unwittingly passing it on and thereby being responsible for someone else becoming sick.

“They may be suffering from low mood due to hearing a constant stream of bad news or struggling with isolation and social distancing.

“Perhaps they are grieving for a loved one they have lost to the virus and are struggling to cope with their feelings, and all of this could be impacted by pre-existing challenges such as living with an eating disorder or understanding their developing sexuality.

“They may have displaced and irrational fears, general overwhelm and/or inflammation in their bodies and low immunity caused by unnecessary stress and overwhelm.”

A variety of therapists with different qualifications and skills, all with a holistic and complementary theme, with be on hand to support and train the young people. These include (to name a few) hypnotherapy, yoga, a transformational communications coach, Reiki, soul coaching, sound healing, massage, aromatherapy, sports massage, reflexology and Indian head massage. Each is an experienced practitioner and Karen has over 10 years experience working with communities and is mental health first aid trained.

If you want to find out how you can get involved or know someone who might, email [email protected] to register your interest.