mental health – paradisegardenblog

Have fun and make friends

Join our fun and friendly volunteer and learning group at St. Paul’s Church in Salford. Our group follows the Creative English learning syllabus – a community-based, English language teaching programme that is suitable for all levels of English. This course is perfect if you have very little or no English – you will quickly gain confidence and basic skills. If you already have good English, you will improve your confidence and communication skills by helping those with less knowledge.

Participants coming together in our Creative English class

What is Creative English?

Creative English uses a drama-based teaching method, with role-play, games, props and flash cards used within peer to peer, group and pair work. You get to practice every-day, practical English in fun, informal ways covering topics such as health, shopping, community and housing. Participants have also found the topics related to work very useful, including job interviews and volunteering.

Our Creative English classes have run alongside other social gatherings for more than 3 years now! We have enjoyed meeting so many local residents and it’s fantastic to see so many people making strong freindships. You can find out more about the background to our Creative English class in the blog post: ‘Our Creative English Journey’.

Improving mental health and wellbeing…

Health Watch Barking and Dagenham, an independent charity, recently published their findings from a case study into Creative English, titled: ‘Creative English Sessions improving mental health and wellbeing’. The case study detailed how participants were referred to the programme ‘because of the positive impact it has on well-being – being part of a fun, friendly community while building your skills makes a huge difference.’

Our weekly group at St. Paul’s Church provides a warm, welcoming fun and friendly class with lots of linked social events and community days. You can find out more about local opportunities, services and sources of support, linked to the topics we cover. Many participants have not only made friends by coming to our group, they have also found out about vital social groups across Salford.

Information is communicated by peers within an informal, relaxed setting – we find that this approach can be very successful. Ultimately, we hope that refugees and asylum seekers follow up on the information provided and access sources of support and opportunities, so that they can improve their health and wellbeing whilst also creating a support network.

Our Training Day with Dr. Anne Smith

Our group has undergone quite a few changes over the last 6 months, with many new participants joining and becoming volunteers – so we decided it was time to breathe some new life into our class!

Dr Anne Smith, the creator and developer of Creative English came all the way up to Salford from her base in London to visit us. She delivered training to our group over two very fun and enjoyable days!

Volunteers learnt how to deliver activities using the Creative English method – which helped us gain confidence and build our communication and leadership skills. So, that meant lots of fun games and drama with some good discussions and laughter!

Dr. Anne Smith is very supportive and gave us the confidence to continue delivering our Creative English class. We look forward to classes starting again soon!

Participants involved in training with Dr. Anne Smith (far right)

Learn with us…

Volunteer with us!

According to Helpguide, an organisation that runs the world’s top 10 mental health websites ‘volunteering can help you make friends, learn new skills, advance your career, and even feel happier and healthier.’

Become a volunteer with our Creative English group and work within our team to deliver teaching activities. This experience will benefit you in many ways – it will build your confidence and communication skills, habits of work and a good reference for future employers or education.

Tag: mental health

Volunteer in Salford and Learn English!