This workshop, run by the team from Where there’s a Will Charity (WTAW), will share the key steps of a whole-community wellbeing initiative reaching more than 30,000 residents in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia. Upper Hunter has made a collective decision to educate themselves about mental health to improve our literacy in the areas of mental health and wellbeing. “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
In 2016, WTAW was formed with the aim of raising collective awareness of wellbeing throughout the Upper Hunter community. Combining systems science with community psychology and positive psychology, WTAW received funding for an array of projects interspersed through our rural community including mental health first aid training and appreciative inquiry (2016-2017), the rollout of positive education to 23 schools and 15 pre-schools (2018-2019) and strength based parenting programs and positive sports coaching (2019- 2020).
This workshop will outline the steps we took, the hurdles we faced along the ways, the factors that have enabled community buy-in and the ways in which we are tracking our progress. It will be a valuable for workshop for others hoping to take the science of positive psychology to create large-scale change.