Wellbeing boxes project

In 2020, the Council for Disabled Children kindly funded IAS services to provide some additional support for the areas that they felt needed more resources within their service. In Bolton, we decided we wanted to focus our attention on young people with SEND (those of secondary age and above). Initially, we employed a member of staff as an outreach worker, to go out into settings in the evenings and at weekends, to meet with young people with SEND, to take IAS services  to them. The intention was to expose  young people to what IAS can offer them and how we could help them. We did this work in lots of different settings across Bolton, in conjunction with Bolton Shared Care's Elaine Nuttall. 

When Covid hit, like most things that involved people getting together, we had to stop the outreach work. The settings closed, and it left the outreach aspect of what we do, in a position where it couldn't carry on in the same way. As we didn't know how long it would be before 'getting together' was ok again, we completely changed the whole work remit to fit our current situation here in Bolton. 

We spent a lot of time thinking about what we could do, to still get the IAS message out to young people with SEND, without sending a physical body out into settings. We looked at the safest way to do this.

When the government announced they were expecting the full return to schools in September 2020, we were all really aware that this was going to be a hugely challenging time for young people, their parents and carers, and indeed, the schools. Mental health was the talking point in our office. We knew some of our young people wouldn't cope well with the return. We knew some hadn't been out at all for months and would be highly anxious. We knew that fostering good emotional health in our young people would be a priority for everyone. We worked out a way to try and help schools to do this, as well as continue to expose young people to our service offer for them.

So, born were the emotional health boxes! Each box contained all the resources needed for a school to facilitate a small group intervention session for up to 10 young people. The boxes include;

1. A folder of resources focused on wellbeing and mindfulness, with lesson plans, ideas for facilitating some interventions, feelings and emotions work sheets, self care kit etc
2. Water bottles- to keep hydrated and keep the brain active- to reduce feelings of anxiety
3. Notepads and pens for writing down feelings and helpful tips they may learn in session
4. Stress balls
5. Mindfulness colouring
6. Mugs and hot chocolate and sweet treats to set the scene and induce feelings of warmth, calm and safety
7. Our new IAS young persons guide that gives all our contact details and things we can support them/ their parents and carers, with.

Secondary schools were approached by email to subscribe for a box for free, with the only requirement being that schools send us some case studies, or anonymised/ consented photos of the sessions, that we can use to evidence the impact of the resources. We had a great response! The schools who signed themselves up were;

• Little Lever High School
• Westhoughton High School
• St Josephs High School
• Turton High School
• Thornleigh Salesian College
• Rivington and Blackrod High School
• Smithills School
• Harper Green School
• St James High School