Under the bridge
The Under the Bridge project has seen Bluetonic and Nottingham CAN come together to raise awareness about the importance of men's mental health and overall wellbeing.
National Lottery Funding has been secured by winning the Peoples Project in the Summer of 2023. This will enable delivery through to the summer 2024 with an aim of increasing participation and exploring ways of sustaining delivery through local health and wellbeing partnerships.
The project, creates space and time for guys to come together. The focus is on getting out in blue spaces and doing things that help improve health and wellbeing. Using the 5 ways of wellbeing as a guide the sessions we run involve:
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Being active, be it walking, swimming or getting out on the water on paddle boards / kayaks. We get out and about in, on and around water.
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Being together, we come together as a group and promote the importance of being around other people and how this helps our wellbeing.
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Connecting to nature, we use some really simple techniques to practice getting into the moment and work on understanding how being present helps.
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Giving, the sessions are very much about giving back to each other in the form of social support. But also finding ways to raise awareness about men's mental health and wellbeing to inspire others to do the same.
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Learning, about wellbeing and sharing things that help. But also recognising that learning new things and having new experiences is good for you.
As well as this and as part of learning new skills people can get involved in singing as a choir. It's a great thing to get involved in and we build all of the above into this element of the project.
Check out the video "Sit Down" below which was chosen because the lyrics strike a chord with mental health and wellbeing. Thank you @Tim Booth and James for such a moving, uplifting and emotional piece that's helped a group of blokes feel comfortable singing.
IMPACT
The impact the project has on people attending has been overwhelmingly positive. During the initial 12 weeks piolet project an impact report was commissioned please see details below:
If your interested in finding out more please sign up using the link below and we will make contact
