This edition speaks to the heart of humanities dilemma, and it is expressed so well by Karen in this months Rambling Reveries when she says “In the warmth of belonging and shared understanding, where burdens are divided and hearts are open, possibilities multiply, and each step forward becomes a collective act of courage”. Karen’s story this month relates to the film, Larapinta End to End, that we showed recently at our Community Centre, when we were very lucky to have the four stars of the film, the two Paul’s, Walter, and Vonna attend on the night and be part of a Q&A after the showing of the film.

Th film is about four Tasmanians with disabilities who walked the Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory, involving steep ascents, and rocky terrain. Karen notes Paul Pritchard reflection, ‘We recognised we were taking dangerous risks. But we firmly believe that to force meaningful societal change societies always need people willing to push boundaries”. Touche!

Our volunteer efforts

Our wonderful volunteers are continuing to do a great job giving our backyard a thorough makeover, the latest addition is this cute kids cubby. Clive and Leigh (pictured) did an especially good job! We have lilium bulbs for sale every Wednesday between 1pm and 3.30pm at the Centre, as part of a fundraiser to raise funds for a heat pump for the Burrow.

Training workshops

We had two great training/workshop events during July, which complemented each other very well. The first was a ‘TANA Talk’, TANA (Trauma Awareness Network Awareness) is a volunteer based not-for-profit group aimed at preventing future harm, promoting healing and enhancing collective well-being though educating communities on the impact of trauma and protective experiences.

One underlying belief which we at Live Well Tasmania also very much believe, is that to build bettter futures, we need to build better brains, but also understanding that is everyone’s responsbility to contribute to an environment which supports ‘building brains’ that are adaptive, resilient, and which thrive through good relationships. It was discussed during the talk that childhood neglect can have similar impacts to trauma (which includes toxic levels of stress). Trauma tends to embed the message that “I don’t matter”, whereas neglect embed’s the message “I don’t exist”. Both these experiences impact on the physical architecture of the the brain, resulting in difficulties trusting others, and negatively affecting learning, memory and emotional control. The image of the three parts of the brain helps to illustrate that often we get stuck in the survival state, especially as a result of trauma and neglect. The good news is that our brains can rewire particularly by having supportive relationships.

The second workshop was “Understanding Mental Wellbeing for Effective Communication”, delivered by the Kentish Regional Clinic which was also extremely helpful, for example in highighting protective factors for mental health. The CHIME model was presented as identifying five key ingredients for a good life, these include having supportive relationships and a sense of purpose and meaning in life. two staples of our work at Live Well.

One great quote from Brene Brown mentioned during the workshop was that “Life is better when I assume that people are doing their best, it keeps me out of judgement, lets me focus on what is, not what should or could be”.

The SAP (Social Activation Program) IT’S A WRAP!!!

This program has come to an end and it was a full and varied program to the very last day. Over the past month our activities included:

Do It For Dolly Day (DIFDD):

We have been in conversation with Council to plant a tree in the Wynyard Gutteridge Gardens to represent ‘DIFDD’ and #BEKIND WYNYARD. This represents the event we held in the gardens partnering with Rural Health 7UP, Coast FM and BighART to raise awareness around bullying and the devastating effects this has on people and community, we all chose to call the event #BEKIND WYNYARD, to shine a light on being kind to each other. SAP designed and purchased a plaque, chose the native plant ‘Bursaria spinosa’ with guidance from local native plant specialists. We are waiting reply from council for the details of when this will be planted.

Live Well Tasmania Community Farm Bush Track Signs:

The Team have completed the signs for the bush tracks at our community farm, the signs were a collaborative effort with Melinda coming in with her cricket machine to cut out the stencils for the signs, Jarrik’s Grandfather helped us learn wood burning on the signs and finally Dudley and Shane assisted the team to attach eucalyptus poles to the sign and they look amazing, big thanks to our community friends and family for helping the team. The SAP team went out to the community farm walking tracks on their last day and placed them in their positions, dug the holes for them to go into with the help of Jarrik’s Dad, Graham and Colby’s friend Dania. We will be having another group from the community to come out to the tracks and cement them in when weather is permitting.

Wynyard Food Hub – ROC volunteering

Our SAP Team continued every Friday to help the Wynyard Food Hub – ROC pack up at the end of their day, they also took the fabulous Aileen shopping two times, spending just over $2000 on much needed supplies for their hub, the team also helped Aileen stack the shelves at the hub. Live Well Tas and the ROC received a grant to purchase products and produce for the Wynyard and Somerset Hubs which feeds the families in need in these areas. The SAP Team each received a thank you card and chocolates from these very grateful ROC volunteers.

SAP Final Celebration

What a fabulous turn out from our community groups who we connected with during this program. CHAC was an apology and unable to attend and passed on a Welcome to Country for Colby to read out, this was his first time to do this honour in respect for his ancestors from the North-Wwest of Tasmania. Our guests enjoyed the presentation from the SAP Team, informing them about how SAP has enhanced their lives, especially how the program helped them achieve their goals and improved their lives, how they enjoyed meeting and finding out about the different community groups in the area, also learning about how they can volunteer with the varied groups. Us at Live Well Tasmania couldn’t be more proud of these young people, the group were always willing to give anything a go, turn up and work as a team, also support each other in the ups and downs of life. They organised a grazing table on the day with Kalani’s lead and designs, such a pretty and delicious spread. The team really enjoyed budgeting and deciding on the menu for this day. Colby had his shirts for sale with his designs printed on them, it all happened so fast for him, one day he was just drawing and creating his designs as a pastime and now he is starting his own clothing line. Jarrik excelled as the MC for the day, Arnold always put in 200% in helping with organising the day and also ran the Community Art Piece where the guests were invited to put their hand print on the SAP initiative Community Art Piece, this piece will be displayed on the Live Well side fence when it gets it face lift when the weather warms up. The Team would like to thank all of the groups who welcomed them in with open arms and lots of support, THANK YOU ALL!

We received so much praise from our guests, Kevin from the Lobster Ponds, Nick from Squid Inc Theatre and Laura from THIERS all took turns to give some meaningful words to the team about how they interacted with them, how impressed they were with them and so grateful to be able to have worked alongside them all.

Our team put on a such a great event, some were so nervous of speaking in front of an audience yet they smashed it!!!

   So, it’s a wrap for the SAP, what a wonderful, engaging, meaningful and useful program, we hope to run more of these in the future. We all had so much fun😊On behalf of Live Well Tasmania, we are so proud of all of the SAP Team and it has been an absolute pleasure watching you all grow and shine. We wish you all the very best for the future and hope you all stay in touch with the community organisations you have been involved with over the past 10 months. LWT does have a couple of grants in submission, if we are successful our SAP Team will be back to run a series of 8 workshops for our community. Watch this space.