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THE POWER OF POSITIVITY: JESS TRIGG TALKS WELLBEING & COMMUNITY
What is Positivity Club CIC and what was the inspiration behind it? I have worked with children for 20 years and have always had a passion about teaching them to talk openly about their feelings. As a child I remember finding self-expression difficult and I found talking about my feelings almost impossible. I became a people pleaser and wore my smile as my mask and would often fake being happy when I was struggling and felt incredibly sad, anxious and different to everyone else. I struggled with intrusive thoughts, intense worry about not being good enough and my self esteem was on the floor. In my eyes, everyone was doing life better than me and internalising all this fear and emotion lead to a tumultuous roller coaster ride of a mental health journey. I struggled with friendships and self confidence and into teenage life this became harder to manage. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety when I was 16. Still, I didn’ t talk openly and even after seeking support would then avoid it at all costs. I opened up fully about my mental health in my early twenties at a coffee morning for mental health awareness and it was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders and I finally realised I wasn’ t alone. This inspired me to start‘ Time for Tea’, which is my adult support group.
Positivity Club was created originally to support children with their mental health and wellbeing. We were able to start this during the pandemic, a time when it was needed the most. We supported children who were unable to see their grandparents, hug anyone, were bereaved and were facing a new kind of anxiety all together. We created a club and a safe place where children could express themselves with no judgement, learn strategies to support these tricky times, socialise and relate to others and importantly, have fun. The fun part is something I am really passionate about as I know that when we are happy and having fun we learn and retain information and therefore it helps to integrate the coping strategies into the children’ s own little tool box.
Tell us more about what a Positivity Club session would run like and what ages do you support? So Positivity Club has a variety of different themes such as anger, worries, self love and confidence, gratitude, kindness, mindfulness, self expression, learning about all feelings, growth mindset and resilience. We also like to look deeper into the different ways to support our mental health and wellbeing and love a collaboration so invite others and visit many places which support our mission.
We have recognised that music, time in nature, yoga, animals, exercise, art, creativity, really have a seriously positive effect. I worked for a long time in Early Years and nurseries, so wanted to offer a service that included children as young as 3 as I truly believe we can teach certain skills form as early as possible. We do a lot of stories, puppets, play, games and crafts. I also do more personalised one to one sessions which are really taking off – these sessions are like coaching for kids and offer a more personalised approach working on the same themes as the groups. We have an older group called‘ Time for Teens’ which is for 10-16 years and runs as a low pressure support group. We have supported teens who are struggling to go to school, have struggled socialising, are on the pathway for additional needs, have experienced bullying online and offline and I am proud to say we have created a space where they can come and be themselves, whilst learning important skills and having an opportunity to socialise in a non-judgemental space.
Do you get into many schools? I have had the pleasure of running after school clubs and workshops in a variety of schools. I recently did a full day of Body Image and Social Media workshops in a secondary school for Year 7 and it was a great success. We really delved into some honest, open chats about how screens are effecting our youth and their self esteem and I felt proud that I was able to boost self esteem in that session and remind the kids that there is so much to love about them and how to celebrate the things that makes them unique which the media makes it so difficult to do.
What do you hope for the future? We are desperate for more funding and I would love to see Positivity Club CIC grow and spread further afield – we have so much work to do – we’ ve only just scratched the surface.
How can people get in touch? E: jess @ positivityclubcic. co. uk W: positivityclubcic. co. uk Facebook: Positivity Club CIC
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