Bloggers the key to boosting wellbeing
17 December 2018
A small army of bloggers lies at the heart of a bid to boost wellbeing in Coventry and Warwickshire.
Residents and workers interested in improving their health and wellbeing have been offered training in using video and social media to tell their story.
Around 50 people have been trained so far, with tips including telling your story, staying safe online, getting your message across to diverse audiences, using your mobile phone to make and edit short films, and joining with others to help with story-telling.
It’s all part of a project called Coventry and Warwickshire Year of Wellbeing 2019, designed to help improve the way that everyone in our area thinks and feels about themselves, their health and their lifestyle.
The idea of the storytelling training is to support people with an inspirational story to tell to share their experience with others, and to encourage others to do the same.
Blogger Adrian, who lives in Warwickshire, said: “It was a fascinating course and really got me thinking about how we don’t do enough to share our own experience in ways that might help other people. I have written my first ever blog and am looking forward to sharing a short film about my own experience, soon!”
The training has been provided by national digital media training and production experts sounddelivery, and has been offered through community groups across Coventry and Warwickshire.
The Year of activity will include celebration events, activity sessions in primary schools, engagement with older people and work to support charities and community groups with their existing efforts to improve wellbeing.
Residents will be engaged and involved in topics as diverse as walking for health, helping people talk about their experiences and improving support for employees in organisations large and small.
The Year is organised by Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council, University of Warwick and Coventry University and all NHS organisations in the area, as well as voluntary sector bodies and emergency services, and links with Coventry European City of Sport and the City of Culture 2021.
Explained Coventry City Council cabinet member, Cllr Kamran Caan: “We believe the more people we can encourage to tell their story, the more who will get to hear stories about wellbeing. We hope those people will then go away inspired and empowered to think about how they can do things to improve their own day-to-day life.”
Added Warwickshire County Council cabinet member, Cllr Les Caborn: “We have already heard some remarkable stories about some amazing people in our communities, and we are starting to see how they have tackled challenges in their own life. We know this will help people make changes themselves. This is just one of the ways we believe the Year of Wellbeing can make a difference.”
Find out more about the Year of Wellbeing
Read Adrian’s first ever blog