Week 1: Building a Strong Sense of Identity

Creating Supportive Community & Building a Strong Sense of Identity

Week 1 saw us diving into our first coaching session with Vida Carmel, our incredible Behavioural Change coach with whom we’ve worked on countless previous programmes.

It was an afternoon filled with somatic tools on how to manage stress and anxiety, breathing methods to enhance a sense of embodiment, and acknowledging tough emotions.

We explored the concept of "CRASH > COACH state," learned somatic grounding techniques, and engaged in some self-empowerment activities. 

The coaching tools Vida provides are designed to be used both in and outside the Pivot sessions, the main aim being for the participants to take away into their everyday lives and move forward with them.

One of the cornerstones of our group coaching is fostering a sense of community among the participants. We know that when we stand together, we can achieve amazing things. 

We wrapped up the coaching session with five minutes of silent reflection, allowing us to soak in everything learned from the powerful session.

Getting Our Hands Dirty 

After a well deserved lunch-break, we handed out jewellery equipment packages to each participant - angle poise lamps, aprons, gloves, files, pliers… you name it! Filled with everything the participants needed to get started on working with acetate and brass, these kits were emptied on the tables and explored.

Makbule, one of our Makers from our 2021 cohort led the group through the introduction to jewellery making.Whilst she’s facilitated a lot of public jewellery making workshops, this was her first day facilitating on the programme.

Commitments for Programme Success

We took care of some essential paperwork including creating a group contract to ensure we all committed to one another, including: respect, punctuality, safeguarding, co-operation and holding one another to a high standard.

Lessons For The Road Ahead

As with anything, not everything went perfectly according to plan. We faced a few challenges, such as one participant not showing up, some exercises going on longer than expected or residents turning up already having had their lunch (we normally provide a nutritious lunch every week).

We can’t wait to see how the programme unfolds over the coming weeks.