Engaging Abundant
Community:
Community Based Intercultural Approach to Mental Wellness
This
18 month project is based on John McKnight’s “Abundant Community Model” (2010),
which emphasizes community connections and acknowledges that everyone has gifts
they can contribute to the community.
The goal of the project is to provide effective, culturally-accessible
mental health supports to vulnerable seniors and caregivers. This project
addresses risk factors for mental illness and mental health challenges by
building supportive relationships and connecting seniors to specialized mental
health services. Seniors from diverse cultural backgrounds, including trained
volunteer Wellness Connectors, take leadership roles and are
meaningfully engaged in the project.
The project will include 4 main project
activities:
1) Caregiver Support Groups
2) Community Slow Walks in which
volunteer Wellness Connectors and community members provide door-to-door
outreach, referrals, mental health related information and invitations to
community activities
3) Kitchen Table Conversations – small informal
group conversations to discuss mental health literacy in culturally relevant
ways
4) New mental health programs/supports generated based on findings
from the Kitchen Table conversations.
Kitchen Table Conversations
Informal, small group
conversations led by a facilitator to gather stories from older adults about
mental health wellness and resilience.
One method of
facilitation is the Appreciative Inquiry technique, which involves
asking an open-ended question related to the topic that focuses on the positive
aspects of a particular experience.
Instead of asking what went wrong, we are asking what went right, and
gaining insights from that.
The
questions we would like to ask your group are:
1) Think of a time when you felt most alive and engaged in your
life. What supported you in this?
2) Now, think of a time when you or someone you know felt
despair. What did you or that person do to get through that situation. Or what
did you or that person do that supported you in that situation?
We would like to
gather these stories in order to understand more deeply how people from different
cultural groups define mental health wellness, how they keep themselves
mentally healthy and what tools people use to regain mental wellbeing. We hope to gain insights into ways to improve
existing mental health supports and create new resources that are more culturally-accessible.
We are looking for a
diverse group of facilitators from different cultural and language backgrounds
to conduct these Kitchen Table Conversations.
Facilitators will have the opportunity to be trained in the Appreciative
Inquiry technique and will only be required to lead one Kitchen Table
Conversation. They are welcome to
conduct more than one conversation if they wish.
Facilitator
training will be on:
Wednesday August 9th from 12:00-3:00 pm
At Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House (2131 Renfrew Street)
Facilitator will be Maria LeRose.
Refreshments will be provided but please have lunch before the
training session.
If
you are interested in participating in the Kitchen Table Conversations either
as a facilitator or participant, please contact Gloria at gloria@froghollow.bc.ca , call 604-251-1225 or talk to staff at your organization who
can connect with Frog Hollow.
Thank you!