The Mind Awareness Project was set up with one purpose, to help everyone manage STRESS.

We aim to help people of all ages who suffer with stress, anxiety, depression and mental health difficulties. A community is based on the quality of the relationships of those within it, and our project is aimed at the community of our county. We aim to involve schools, colleges,
youth clubs, families and the elderly. We will engage people in an established mindfulness programme, specifically designed for young people aged 7-21, called the Soma Youth Mindfulness Programme and the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course for Adults.

All of these courses are evidence based and were first introduced by Dr Kabat-Zin in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre. These courses can be delivered as a weekly course or one-off hour, half day or day sessions in groups or 1.1.

Our aim is to engage individuals from the whole system, teaching connection, collaboration, openness and kindness to encourage the growth of a mindful attitude.

We set up a pilot scheme, kindly sponsored by The Linda Hogan Community Fund.

"Our mission is to facilitate others & cultivate inner calm"

The Mind Awareness Project

How It All Began

We decided we would like to run weekly mindfulness sessions for adults with the aim of wanting to leave a legacy, by empowering the community to be able to run their own mindfulness group, giving them the skills and autonomy to take it forward.

These sessions would helping them reduce stress, manage anxiety and depression and give them mindfulness techniques to use everyday for mental health issues. The response to the pilot led us to work together with the participants designing and developing this project. Their feedback input has led us to keep the project remaining community focused and by offering this course on a donation basis, we will be able to make mindfulness accessible to everyone in the community. They have said they desire to meet regularly and run the project on a local level for the community .

This successful pilot reached 20 adults of all ages, ranging from the youngest at 23 to the oldest at 81, We set out in the local community via the church and local community facebook group to offer this course at the village church hall. The response for help was overwhelming and become clear to us that there are a lot of people who are struggling day to day with issues arising from the pandemic, isolation and stress. We set out on our evidence based mindfulness stress reduction course and after 2 weeks 80% of the community said using these techniques helped them to feel less stressed, more focused, calm and relaxed. This resulted in a better nights sleep, less anxiety and a feeling of belonging with this group. 100% of the community said they would continue this ongoing practice. They all said that it was beneficial to have somewhere to go.

"Helping more people reach their potential at the earliest possible stage and empowering them with the skills to prevent them reaching a crisis point and clinical intervention is the aim of this project."

Bringing communities together with the help of mindfulness, proved so beneficial during our pilot project. Having a community who could share their thoughts and encourage each other whilst learning these techniques was incredible for them.100 % of the community reported a change in either their stress levels, anxiety or outlook on life. They are now encouraging others in these way. We look to continue this work with adults.

The participants from the pilot have driven this project forward, they want to have a regular mindfulness group in their local area.

With a succesful pilot scheme under our belt we were able to secure our next funding from The Kent Community Foundation. This has enabled us to continue to run our courses .

Everyone that attends our courses continues to meet up on the first Tuesday of the month for encouragement , support and to share their experiences.

We are pleased to announce the National Lottery has accepted our application for funding and will generously continue supporting us with a grant as we continue our community stress courses.