Introducing our Accelerate Wellbeing Cohort

The Accelerate Wellbeing Programme is part of ChurchWorks' mental health and wellbeing mission area. Many of the 40,000 churches across the UK are offering impactful support to their communities through innovative projects and partnerships with the NHS. We want to understand what makes these projects impactful and how we can support more churches to develop similar partnerships with their local health service. 

Over a three year period, we will provide research, workshops and business development support to a cohort of projects that are already demonstrating their impact and are interested in exploring how their work could be scaled or replicated. We are delighted to announce the confirmed cohort projects below and we look forward to exploring how their work can be further developed.

Our Cohort

GraceWay Hub‍

Graceway is a Christian social action charity working with key partnerships across churches, charities, and other community stakeholders, to strategically deliver the best frontline services to support people within their communities. 

It is in the process of establishing a Wellbeing Hub in collaboration with the local churches in Strood. This wellbeing hub will support the existing ministries of the churches and Graceway will equip them to introduce additional services including the training of volunteers to run a 12-week mental health courses and ‘Grace Advocacy’. Two churches are currently engaging in the hub to deliver Christian counselling which is being socially prescribed by local GPs.

The project is looking to expand the hub through engaging more church partners and delivering a broader range of wellbeing services. 

Norton Healing Hub

St Mary’s and St Michael’s Churches in Stockton host the Norton Healing Hub. The vision is to offer wholeness and healing to any local person in Norton  (believers and non-believers): tackling isolation, reducing poverty, sharing gifts, and embracing hope & opportunity through individual support and community wellbeing initiatives. 

The churches work in partnership with public sector agencies and voluntary sector partnerships to offer a range of health provision including financial advice, food provision, a pastoral care team, healing services, blood pressure checks, opportunities to engage in volunteering and to build local friendships. 

The hub is looking to expand its network in order to build sustainable and effective partnerships so that they can offer increasingly holistic services to a larger number of people. 

Men Changing Lives

Men Changing Lives (MCL) is a people-led community-based initiative supporting local men to support each other to turn their lives around. It is based in Ely Bridge, Cardiff and hosted by St Vincent de Paul. 

At MCL’s weekly Friday drop-in sessions, men from all backgrounds come together to socialise, be accepted, heard and listened to. MCL offers a safe environment for men to build confidence and to access support services including financial and housing advice, addiction recovery support, and community-based well-being initiatives. This is done in partnership with voluntary sector organisations and social prescribing link workers. 

MCL is looking to create sustainable relationships with the NHS and other local organisations in order to learn from each other and to encourage better joined up working. 

Listening and Guidance - Social Prescribing Link Workers 

The Listening and Guidance model builds on the work of chaplaincy in General Practice. The project is currently operating within the borough of Dudley and a large number of volunteers and staff are members of local churches including Revival Fires, the lead organisation for this project. 

Staff and volunteers are trained to offer attentive listening and a confidential space to talk about anything that is causing stress, distress, low-level anxiety and disappointment. This service is offered to patients with non-medical needs who book GP appointments because they don’t know where else to turn. Sitting within the NHS Social Prescribing framework, the additional roles such as this are recognised to reduce GP time; easing pressure on a stretched service. Volunteers run drop-in groups which patients can be referred to in order to provide sustainable community support for those who need it. 

Evaluation of the Listening and Guidance service demonstrates that 4-6 sessions with the Listening and Guidance team member was as effective for improving patient wellbeing as a prescription for antidepressants. 

The project is looking to equip other churches and NHS commissioners to set up a Listening and Guidance service that aligns with social prescribing in their local areas. 

The Light Project Peterborough- the Church and the ICS

The Light Project Peterborough facilitates the only cross-denominational network to bring together Christian leaders (church and charity) to consider developing their social impact in Peterborough. This has included distributing resources to small- medium community initiatives, developing communications across the churches, and sharing learning through one to ones, workshops and creative spaces. This is done through facilitating quarterly ‘Peterborough Christians for Social Action’ meetings, workshops on social and community issues, liaising with police, NHS and local authorities as a representative for churches across the city, and communicating with over 100 church leaders across the city. 

The project currently has strategic and operational relationships with the ICB who provide contractual funding for the Light Project Peterborough’s health work. The project is looking to increase the integration across the NHS and the Christian churches through developing communication between the ICB and the church, delivering workshops to encourage co-design across the NHS and the church, and to identify new Christian projects in the city that can be integrated into the network. 

WAY Beacons

WAY Beacons is now an independent charity but was originally started by Gateway Church, Swindon. The project was developed by young people in partnership with the church, Swindon Borough Council, the Great Western Hospital and Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner. The project aims to break the cycles of hospital readmission and risk-taking behaviour of young people by connecting with them in hospital and embedding them in on-going community support after discharge. This is done by young volunteers who are trained to support their peers.

The project is seeking to partner with other churches who are interested in empowering young people to bring about lasting change for their communities.  

Advisory Group

Our cohort will be supported by the ChurchWorks team but also an Advisory Group of experienced health professionals currently working in different parts of the health system. This group will be key to helping us mentor the cohort and design appropriate partnerships between churches and the health system, and linking the new partnerships up with the right people.

The Accelerate Wellbeing Advisory Group consists of:

• Dr Jane Fryer - Medical Director for South London, NHS England
• Jane Cook - Health and Inclusion Consultant, Nurse, Public Health Specialist
• Dr Andy Knox - GP in Carnforth, Lancashire and the Director of Population Health for the Morecambe Bay Health and Care System
• Helen MacMillan - Occupational Therapist and Personalised Care Lead, Northampton General Practice Alliance

How can I get involved?

Accelerate Wellbeing is all about using our networks to maximise the impact of our brilliant cohort through scaling and replication.  If you have read this briefing and are interested in partnering with Accelerate Wellbeing, please consider:

• Becoming a scaling or replication partner: If you are a leader in a local church, community organisation, Local Authority or health system and would be interested in piloting one of these schemes in your area, get in touch.
• Becoming a member of the Advisory Group: If you are a health professional who would like to offer expertise, mentoring and advice to help our cohort, we still have two spaces open on our Advisory Group.
• Offering strategic support or funding to the Accelerator: If you work for a national organisation, government department or in a strategic or funding role and would like to learn more or offer general support to increase the impact of the accelerator, we are running this project in ‘learning mode’ and would be keen to discuss your suggestions.

For all enquiries, please contact esther.platt@goodfaith.org.uk