Can you tell us a bit about what Step Ahead Trust does and how you make a difference in the lives of people with lived experience of mental distress?
Step Ahead supports the holistic wellbeing of people who experience mental health issues by providing activities for them to get involved in. Activities cover education, life skills, creative projects, social opportunities, community participation, and outings. The aim is to empower and enable them to have the belief and ability to develop life skills so they can achieve the best possible level of independence, resilience, confidence, and quality of life.
How did the Trust and your members celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week this year?
Step Ahead owns two houses in Christchurch, one in Stanmore Road and one in Puriri St in Riccarton. For Mental Health Awareness Week, we do a hīkoi between the two, which is 6.6km. It’s a very picturesque route that winds alongside the Avon River, through Latimer Square, into Hagley Park, and through Riccarton Park gardens. This year we had over 50 people join our walk.
How does Step Ahead Trust enact the Five Ways to Wellbeing year-round?
The Five ways to Wellbeing are at the heart of what we do at Step Ahead. I could write a book!
Connect: every activity we do promotes connection between each other, staff, and often the community. In 2020 we began an innovative new connect project with funding from the Ministry of Social Development to help connect members to the wonders of the Internet. We provided free modems and heavily discounted devices such as laptops and smartphones. Members are now doing things like talking to family and friends more frequently, online shopping and banking, online study, and interacting via social media.
Give: our members have opportunities to volunteer for organisations like Meals on Wheels, make art for Starship Children’s Hospital, and participate in gardening working bees.
Be Active: being active is a huge part of the Step Ahead Trust – we do over 100 activities a week including walking, tramping, biking, swimming, sailing, and horse riding. We also have an annual 250km challenge where everyone works together to achieve a goal - we set up a 1km course at a local park and our members walk, ride, or run around and the laps are recorded.
Take Notice: we have a nature group and visit a local estuary to observe and learn about the birds. A highlight Is always seeing the godwits when they arrive!
Keep Learning: we challenge our members to do and learn new things every day. We have regular Te Reo and Sign language classes and host guest speakers who share their wisdom on a range of topics. One of our favourite things is our Talent Talks where our members share their experiences and talents with others.
Do you have any examples or anecdotes you can share about how the Five Ways to Wellbeing have improved the mental wellbeing of your members, or staff?
One of our members who is deaf purchased a tablet through our Connect project and was able to utilise an online sign language interpreter so he could join in group activities. Another member, who when she first came to Step Ahead would not communicate, now does all the hardest physical challenges, talks to everyone, and encourages others – she’s completely transformed.
What words of wisdom would you give to other workplaces starting their Five Ways to Wellbeing journey?
For me, the most important of the five ways is “connect.” Building a relationship with someone and taking the time to get to know them makes it easy to be inclusive, non-judgemental, kind, and supportive.
