Equalities Toolkit - EDIF project

Feedback from our Learners

angelaw — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 07:21:21 +0000

Start Living (a Mindful Life): End of course feedback from learners (2014)

“Thoroughly enjoyed the course. Very informative and helpful.”

“The course taught me how to use mindfulness when my mind wanted to punish me for things that happened years ago”

“Fantastic course. I have gained confidence and have come off my medication for anxiety”

“Valuable tools I will have forever. Thank you so much.”

“Nice and friendly atmosphere”

“Thank you for so much positivity and calm. What a fab course!”

“Excellent course – thanks.”

“Made me want to change”

“Since starting mindfulness I have not been to the doctors!”

“It is so nice to be able to go out of my front door without worrying about what might happen”

“I found having teachers who have been through issues themselves made the course more meaningful.”

“An alternative way of thinking and helping to cope with thoughts and anxiety”

“After this course I am looking forward to doing more.”

“Made me feel more at peace with myself”

“Well done guys keep up the excellent work in helping others.”

“Very well presented and run as it is on a very easy to deal with level.”

“Knowing it works makes you keep at it.”

“Good to know I am not alone or unusual.”

“Opened my eyes to controlling my mind rather than it controlling me!”

“Found Mark an excellent tutor and really enjoyed sharing ideas.”

“Given me the courage to volunteer and go back into the world.”

“Now recommending mindfulness to other people with depression.”

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Mindfulness for Recovery - The Project Impact summary figures

angelaw — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 07:17:08 +0000

Start Living (a Mindful Life)Feedback data analysis.

This analysis relates to exit feedback questionnaires from learners attending mindfulness courses between January and July 2014.

Percentage of students who declared that they had -

Some benefit from the course 100%

Significant benefit from the course 83%

Profound benefit from the course 22%

More positive in outlook 94%

Less anxious, depressed, stressed 89%

Gained in confidence 87%

Ready to take on new challenges 84%

Family and friends noticing improvement 71%

Improved coping mechanisms 93%

The End and The Beginning

mindfulmark — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 19:40:14 +0000

Hi once again,
And so it ends - and what a wonderful journey it has been. As Angela and I sit here collating the final outcome statistics and learner comments, we genuinely feel humbled by the whole experience.

Ten months has produced so much; classes which total over a hundred learners a week, two newspaper articles featuring our story, so many wonderful new NIACE^definition friends and best of all, learners who report that their lives have been literally turned around by Mindfulness.

But we also get the feeling of a new beginning.

As a result of this project, we have now made new links and re-inforced old ones with various partners within the community. For example, links with general practitioners, NHS^definition recovery teams, York Carers, York Mind, Job Centre Plus and many, many more.

These partners now refer learners to us who need Mindfulness to help with their various mental health difficulties that cannot be met swiftly through the NHS. We are achieving equality objectives because they cannot afford private psychiatric interventions, but are genuinely being turned around through the powers of Mindfulness and also, interaction with like-minded people.

Master class in lesson planning to deliver EDI within work-based learning

NTNEDI — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:48:43 +0000

Have just finalised our project page and uploaded all our materials, I hope they are useful to other project members

Natalie

Film complete - feedback good

Lynn Howarth — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 07:32:52 +0000

The final version of our film has been really well-received by the people who have seen it so far. I think the direct personal accounts from our trans participants really brought it to life and made it more effective.

The final version is six minutes long, which is longer than we originally intended but it seemed like the minimum length we could get away to include what we feel we needed to. We thought it would be a shame to have to lose any of it, and anyway six minutes is still short enough that it can easily be incorporated into meetings/staff training etc without people getting bored. We followed a general pattern which we hope people feel flows logically, where we state some facts and figures, talk about what kinds of things go wrong, then what people have got right and end with the what recommendations can be drawn from all this; some very simple guidance for what to do and what not to do when dealing with trans people.

One of the questions I received at the conference in Newcastle the other week was along the lines of "okay that's all very well but how do we actually go about carrying out the recommendations" which is a good point. Well, first of all there is a little bit more detail in the executive summary than appears in the recommendations at the end of the film, but I think to a large extent this is a topic for future research. Further research could take a similar qualitative, interview approach to explore, for example, what would make a trans person feel that they were "actively welcomed" at a particular location or institution.

4 films about Apprenticeships for people with learning disabilities and employers

Apprenticeshipswork — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 21:41:55 +0000

4 films about Apprenticeships for people with learning disabilities and employers by Newcastle City Learning and The Twisting Ducks Theatre Company.

All for One, final film complete!!!!

jujusharma — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 08:37:51 +0000

Yeahhhhhhhhh!!! Our final project film is complete and available to view on our page:

www.equalitiestoolkit.com/content/all-one

I have to say that I am so relieved that this is finished as last weekm we were having major technical issues and it was touch and go as to whether we would have it ready or not.

Im really happy with it, some of the content isnt what I wanted to focus on but the film ran its own course and for a small part I had to go with the artistic integrity of our marketing team...lol. The project has shifted at times (as I think most of us have found) but I think thats the beauty of projects such as this.

Very excited to see all of your fantastic work on Wednesday, safe journey and see you there!

The Reach Out Theatre Collective

ReachTCsuac2013 — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 21:26:49 +0000

Hello All.

It's been a hectic few weeks as the end of my term means two musicals at Level 3 and HND as Director and of course working with the Reach Out Theatre Collective a committed diverse group of young people! I am amazed at how much material has been generated by the participants and we are looking forward to the July 2nd event in SUAC and performing/workshopping the work thus far. The project has the potential for longevity post the summer months and new academic year...I am looking forward to seeing all the projects on Wednesday 25th June in Newcastle.

Successes

Neil Measures — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 17:21:17 +0000

It is a real pleasure and source of pride, hearing the individual successes from bothemployers and learners. Usually success comes about as a result of having overcomeparticular challenges and there have been plenty! It is clear that, not only is the immediate impact of the project measurable, with some learners already looking like going into paid employment with their employer and/or onto apprenticeships, but how the programhas really helped give young people with a disability or difficulty a firm career foundation; allowing access to future opportunity within their chosen field,which would otherwise have been impossible.

Project Report Updates

NTNEDI — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 15:44:56 +0000

Updated our project page with our project report. Some good results starting to emerge around the performance of some protected groups. Looking forward to the dissemination events.

Natalie