CFNI Funded Groups Explore Wellness and Connection in the Workplace

5 Sep 2022 Susan Glass    Last updated: 12 Sep 2022

Thursday 1 September 2022 saw the first in a series of Learning Events, delivered as part of the CFNI Capacity Building Accelerator and Mentoring Programme.

Wellness and Connection in the Workplace was facilitated by Catherine Murnin from The Wellbeing Pathway. The session focused on reflecting, sharing, and learning about workplace wellbeing in practice and enabling participants to feel more confident about developing a meaningful wellbeing approach for their organisations and staff teams.

The Covid pandemic has greatly impacted on our mental health and forced us to re-evaluate our relationship with wellbeing practices, both personally and professionally. This learning event was developed to provided managers and leaders with improved knowledge and practical tools that they can bring back to their workplace, which can bring a multitude of benefits to their organisations.

Catherine said:

Investing in workplace wellbeing can lead to improvements across all parts of the organisation. Stand alone, tick box initiatives won’t have a lasting impact. It might seem overwhelming at first but start by having the conversations. Ask the questions. Listen. Work together to take actions, one step at a time.

As well as sharing and reflecting on their own wellbeing practices, participants were given the opportunity to hear from Gillian Cameron from Inspire about their Workplace Support Hub, and from Emma McCrudden, the Programme Manager for NI Chest Heart and Stroke’s Work Well, Live Well programme. Both organisations offered very practical ways in which they can help, and support managers deliver better wellbeing outcomes for their organisations.

Feedback

For many people it was their first opportunity in a long time to participate in an in-person event. There was an increased sense of connection and re-connection with old and new colleagues and the feedback from participants very much reflected this.

"The event was what I had hoped for and more. I just needed that time with others, and I felt very relaxed and supported during the day. It made workplace wellbeing seem less daunting."

“It was great to meet face-to-face and feel part of a real-life community of people working in other charities and organisations with a common goal.

“I really enjoyed the event – it has changed my perspective on wellbeing in the workplace and provided me with new ideas to improve in this area”

“It was good to speak to others from different organisations who are facing challenges that we can all relate to.”

“Very well delivered, informative and providing a good variety of information”

 Over the next two years the Capacity Building Accelerator and Mentoring programme aims to engage with CFNI Grant Recipients to provide bespoke learning opportunities and mentoring support, as well as access to a range of practical and interactive workshops and events.    The programme is funded by Community Foundation NI through the Department of Health's CancerCarers and Mental Health Funds and is delivered by NICVA. For further information contact Project Coordinator, Susan Glass [email protected] 

susan.glass@nicva.org's picture
by Susan Glass

Capacity Building Programme Coordinator

[email protected]

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