Turas Na nDaoine applied to Elevate due to past experience working with Elevate and the flexibility and support offered within the programme. In a previous round, the group held Mental Health First Aid training and safeguarding training for their Befriending Volunteers. They also facilitated Hope and resilience training for young people-working with three local schools.
The organisation applied to Elevate Community Mentoring & Grants programme for a Strengthening Community/Family Relationships programme they wished to run in their area. The group wanted to better understand how family disconnects impact on mental wellbeing and how these relations can be improved. Mentor organisation, ARC Healthy Living Centre, would support them through the programme.
Turas Na nDaoine planned to provide relevant training for volunteers and community members. This would equip them with necessary knowledge to improve family/social relations and provide a safe platform for community members to engage in solution seeking dialogue taking a restorative approach to improving relationships.
Their mentor organisation, ARC Healthy Living Centre, helped the group develop a broader knowledge of project structure and development, from setting realistic aims and objectives to understanding outputs and outcomes and how to measure what works and what does not. The group found working with their Elevate programme mentor beneficial as a whole with information on good governance and advice on project management.
In addition, they wanted to run this year’s programme as a pilot. The short term nature of the Elevate programme and flexible approach from CDHN, the mentor and others allowed them to shape their project in an ad hoc way. This allowed the group to cope with new challenges and changes that arose within the planned project itself, such as moving their workshops from in person to online.
All participants who completed the course obtained a Level 2 in Restorative Parenting and were keen to proceed to Level 3 which the group decided to offer given the success of the Level 2. The beneficiaries said the skills gained have been useful to their family lives helping to resolve conflict within the family which benefited the entire family dynamic. Another shared that they were able to offer good advice in terms of their working life, helping to resolve conflict in the work environment.
The organisation made a new connection in their mentor and ARC has agreed to assist in shaping their project going forward by providing guidance. The group also benefitted from making connections online with the other funded projects in the Western Trust area.
Through the Elevate training, Turas Na nDaoine determined how health inequalities arise within society and how they impact on the health of an individual by geographics, demographics and more likely, economics. They found the videos presented especially useful, giving a simple and easy to follow picture of how dramatically health outcomes can alter from location to location and socio-economic backgrounds, and how inequalities are structural and avoidable. The group is much more confident in terms of their knowledge of health inequalities, the systemic issues and causes and how to action the same.
“Elevate is one of the best short programmes we have worked with in our five years as an organisation, the level of attention and support provided to our group has been truly unparalleled. If you are a small group, a group with limited resources, or have a short history in community development, Elevate provides friendly invaluable support and knowledge by way of trainers and mentors to help your project on the way to success. “
Sinead Lunney, Advice and Advocacy Co-ordinator, Turas Na nDaoine
