What is The BOOST Programme?
Welcome to the home of BOOST! We are a community funded programme that is providing long term (18 month) innovative group sessions for people who are experiencing low mood, feeling stressed, and in need of an emotional boost. This programme provides a unique mental and emotional health education programme together with a large and practical self-help toolkit. It will be especially beneficial to those of you who may be stuck in patterns of anxiety, depression, or many other diagnosed mental ill health problems.
What are the criteria for entry?
Our only criteria are that you live in and around the Lichfield area and are over 18 years of age. To attend the sessions, you
can either be in work or not in work as this programme is not designed as a ‘back to work’ initiative. Our sessions times have been designed to cater for all situations, running on either a Thursday afternoon from 12-30pm till 2-30pm or a Tuesday evening from 6pm till 8pm. It will be available to all adult members of the community in Lichfield and the surrounding areas, who are suffering from a diverse range of issues including anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, burnout, low confidence, social isolation, and low self-
esteem.
BOOST is an innovative group programme delivering a fun, educational and positively uplifting experience to residents within the Lichfield area. It is aimed at those who are experiencing low mood, feeling stressed and in need of an emotional BOOST. This project has been created by the Big HAppiness Experiment CIC and is facilitated by the companies founder , Jules Mitchell. The BOOST programme will help boost confidence, nurture self esteme and alleviate anxiety and depression
If you live in the Lichfield district and would like to access this service then we would love to hear from you.
You can contact us via one of the following options.
Like and message us via our Facebook page
Email us at lee@bighappinesscic.com
Text the words “BOOST” to 07583203444
and we will tell you more
Where does BOOST take place?
Our weekly sessions take place in the community room inside Tesco in Lichfield..
This is easily accessible by public transport and there is free car parking at Tesco. If using the car park, you will be asked to advise the customer service team that you’re attending a group session in the community room and they will record your car registration on their system. (In order that you don’t get charged!)
What happens in the sessions?
The sessions are facilitated by Jules Mitchell who’ll be your Chief Happiness Officer for the entire length of the project – which is 18 months. Each week Jules will choose a subject to focus on that will help you to learn more about yourself and your ‘human operating system’. It will be an informative and educational session that will be delivered in a unique and fun style so that it’s easy to understand and remember. Jules makes learning fun and provides a safe and nurturing environment with the obligatory tea, coffee and biscuits!
The subjects covered over the course of the programme will be extensive from learning about your brain in survival mode, your nervous system’s ‘traffic light’ model, the three elements of your mind, how emotions get stored in the body, how and where trauma is encoded in the brain, the positive reason you have negative thoughts, where your limiting beliefs stem from and so much more!
Alongside the ‘teaching aspect’ of the programme Jules will be sharing an extremely extensive tangible toolkit of Self-Help Tools; the Bitesize Boosts or Neuro-Nibbles as she likes to call them. These tools have been designed to calm anxiety in the body, create confidence, energise a system that’s become numb and frozen, and generally reintroduce wellness into your brain-body-system.
Who Delivers The Course
This project has been created by The Big Happiness Experiment CiC with funding from the Community Lottery Fund. It’s facilitated by the company’s founder; Jules Mitchell (above) who always has a smile on her face! Please see our website for more details about our organisation: www.bighappinesscic.com.
We share regular updates on this page of our sessions and student breakthroughs, so please like and share away!
How many people attend BOOST sessions?
The session numbers will vary from week to week, on average we expect to have approximately 12people in attendance from all backgrounds and ages.
Why has The BOOST Programme been created?
Our research (Big Happiness CiC) has confirmed that mental illness within the Lichfield community is at unprecedented levels due to various factors including the aftereffects of COVID, the cost-of-living
crisis, and long NHS waiting lists. So, with over 20 years’ experience in supporting people in the community with all types of mental and emotional distress, we wanted to offer the Boost Programme as a free to attend 18- month community support group, delivered int 2-hour weekly sessions and supported by a substantial library of online classes and resources.
How do I register for the programme?
We try and make it easy for you to register for BOOST and have one simple online form for you complete that provides us with all the initial details that we require. If you would like to register for any of our sessions then please complete this form online and then we will get in touch via text to chat things through in more detail.
What is the aim of The BOOST
Programme?
It is our aim that people from all walks of life come together in a safe and caring community environment, where we will provide a unique framework of education, practical tools, and strategies in order that they can develop healthy attitudes towards mental health and greater emotional resilience, whilst strengthening their capacities to manage stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.
From our experience, the programme will reduce social isolation, increase community well-being, making Lichfield a healthier, happier place to live whilst helping people to talk about their mental health issues. It could ‘boost’, the local economy by allowing individuals who currently claim state benefits to return to work, thereby reducing benefit costs, whilst creating income that will be spent within the community.BOOST will bring community members of all ages, social economic backgrounds, and ethnic communities together, improving community well-being and resilience. All will be welcome, making friends with people they might otherwise never meet, building strong relationships in and across the community.
Our project will help people reach their potential by providing early intervention access to help, strengthening capacities to manage stress, anxiety, depression, reducing social isolation whilst increasing interpersonal skills, community spirit and social inclusion. It will enhance chances of gaining employment, positively affecting the local community, providing income to be spent locally.
The cost-of-living crisis has added increased pressure on individuals across the community. We will increase local capacity to provide a service and support in the community via peer-to-peer support and sharing of knowledge and techniques with family friends and other members of the community, bringing the community together whilst promoting positive mental attitudes. Our connection and passion to serve Lichfield residents Between 2017 and summer 2023 we provided project happiness for the residents of Lichfield, creating long standing relationships with the local NHS, charities, job centres, organisations and individual members of the community.
Although we currently do not have a presence in Lichfield, we are frequently contacted by the above looking for a supportive group that they can recommend or attend. We have researched the need for this project with the stakeholders and individuals from the Lichfield community via telephone calls, meetings, individual coffee chats and project group discussions and then these meetings we are asked continuously if we can start a new project to help the community with their mental and emotional health, resilience, and well-being.
The community have provided significant input as to how we can best reach those most in need, using group sessions, online portals and social media for delivery, the latter providing 24/7 access for those in the community who work and cannot attend the live group sessions. We are known, respected, and trusted in the community for making a difference and for delivering positive, life changing results over the past five years in our area of expertise. We now have a community we urgently need the boost programme.