20 February 2021

MindSpace Stamford and Art Pop-Up are launching a community project to create a map based on the 5 Ways to Wellbeing to help the local community look after their mental health.

A group of MindSpace volunteers, supported by Darren Rawnsley of Art Pop-Up, are talking to local people to discover where in Stamford they would recommend as good places to fulfil one (or more) of the 5 Ways to Wellbeing: CONNECT, BE ACTIVE, LEARN, GIVE and TAKE NOTICE. These will then be plotted on a beautifully drawn map and distributed as a wellbeing tool for the local community.

Sam Roddan of Art Pop-Up, who came up with the idea, said “Over the last 12 months, lots of people have discovered new places to walk, have noticed new things and the map presents an opportunity to share these with others and to find a new mindful appreciation of our local spaces. In itself the project encourages us to use many of the 5 Ways – CONNECT as we reach out and talk to the community for their input into places to go and things to see. TAKE NOTICE as we think about places to recommend, GIVE through sharing knowledge of the local area, and when we distribute the map in April hopefully it will encourage people to LEARN and BE ACTIVE in going to see some of the spots on the map.”

Darren commented “I am already amazed at how the 5 Ways to Wellbeing are being implemented, a lot of the time without people even realising they are using them. I’m finding that the 5 Ways are important to those I’ve spoken with so far and we’ve had some great contributions. We’ve still a long way to go in collecting suggestions, but it’s a fantastic opportunity for everyone to get involved in a COVID-Secure community activity – we want as many different parts of the community to be involved as possible in making the recommendations.”

Helen Howe, MindSpace Chair of Trustees added “The 5 Ways to Wellbeing have been scientifically proven to be beneficial to mental health and wellbeing and are at the heart of everything we do at MindSpace. We’ve worked with local schools to introduce staff and pupils to the 5 Ways and, following the success of the Journaling project with Art Pop-Up, we’re excited about this new, creative way for people to share how they experience the 5 Ways with the wider community.”

The Wellbeing Map will be distributed by MindSpace Stamford and Art Pop-Up. Further details will be announced on our social media channels.

If you’d like to help with the research or have a suggestion to make for the map, please contact Darren at research@artpopup.co.uk