Stronger than you Think

During lockdown, we carried out a series of workshops with members of our disabled staff population to better understand their support needs.

We quickly learned that we weren’t getting it right and there was more we could be doing, but also that their concerns and worries were mirrored within many of our wider staff groups, such as feelings of isolation, anxiety and stress.

We wanted to do more to help, but there is a careful balance to be struck between helping people and allowing them the space and resources to help themselves and build internal resilience. Research suggests that resilience needs to be a choice made by an individual and supported by a community and from this idea, we developed the Stronger than you Think programme.

The programme is an online diagnostic tool which will email each participant a personalised Resilient Strengths report outlining their relative strengths and development areas. With this information, you will than start a programme of “Self-Directed Change,” helping you to better understand where your thoughts or behaviours can undermine or build resilience. This knowledge will then enable us to grow higher levels of resilience.

Within the programme participants are provided with a range of self-help tools – videos to watch, podcasts to listen to whilst walking or driving, reading materials, online links to explore and places to connect with one another. Choosing the materials you need to support you, means you are building resilience from existing strengths rather than working with a ‘one size fits all’ assuming a ‘sheep dip’ approach.

If you are interested in the programme you can find out more here.  

Published 8th October 2021