Headlight celebrates the big 5-0!
The Headlight team is celebrating a major milestone this month; with 50 mental health education workshops having been delivered to the Queenstown Lakes and wider Southern community to date!
Since 2021, Headlight’s diverse team of passionate community facilitators have been out and about connecting with hundreds of people from priority groups across the region to understand what mental health is and to have more confidence, skills and knowledge to talk about it with their friends, whānau and community.
Key achievements to date:
50 GoodYarn community workshops delivered since 2021
407 people in Queenstown Lakes and Southern community have participated in the community programme
17 facilitators trained to deliver workshop locally
100% of participants say they would recommend the workshop to others
80% of participants have used what they’ve learnt from the workshop
The GoodYarn community programme, which is unique to Queenstown Lakes, was created following the COVID-related events of 2020. This workshop milestone is a real cause for celebration, explains Anna Dorsey, Chief Executive of Headlight.
“We initially wanted to take action to help reach those people in our community who were struggling but weren’t engaging with clinical services and our aim was to build better support around them. Yet what we’ve learnt over this past two years is that empowering local people with mental health education has significant value to our community as a whole. It’s an important preventative strategy that builds resilience, prepares people to better handle the ups and downs of life, and creates a more connected caring community across many different groups, neighbourhoods and networks. It helps build the kind of community we’d all like to live in.“
The team is continuing to bring mental health education, thanks to funding from Te Hau Toka, Central Lakes Trust, Wakatipu Community Foundation and Lotteries Community Grant.
Workshops are being held in May and June to support priority groups including NGOs and volunteers, tourism operators and small business communities in the QLDC. To find out about upcoming events click here: (https://headlight.org.nz/upcoming-workshops)
To find out more about supporting the work we do at Headlight please contact us at info@headlight.org.nz