Better Things

Better Things ran a number of workshops for their Sharing Our Wellness funding and through these have created an Autumn Almanac of Wellness (attached below). Also, people shared ideas and opportunities on and with the AutumnAlmanacofWellness @Autumnwellness Twitter account. This was offered as a kind and joyous space on social media, a place which is often very negative and potentially damaging for people.

The workshops focused on some specific areas and attempted to link hobbies and interests to wellness. For example, one workshop looked at music, another at gardening and being outdoors. They have also looked at the value of pets and animals and also healthy eating and "happy food" with a couple of recipes included in the almanac. Better Things have also done some work on poetry and affirmations, and some of these also included in the almanac.

They launched the draft almanac at an event in December 2019 where they also introduced their sharing tree where people attending could share ideas and thoughts by gifting them on the tree for others to take. Over November and December, Better Things worked with a number of small groups visiting Manchester and the Christmas markets while also researching transport opportunities and accessible free places to visit. This forms a page in the almanac but also highlighted the number of people with learning disabilities who seldom visit Manchester city centre and are unaware of a huge number of places of interest.

The majority of photographs contained in the almanac have been submitted by followers on social media, by project participants or are from the workshops and activities attached to this project.

Kate, Better Things CEO, said "This has been a wonderful project to work on and we have enjoyed every minute of it. We have decided to continue the social media pages and to continue using the Sharing Our Wellness hashtag."