The Three Cs
Wellbeing Swanage is all about harnessing the potential embedded within Swanage and its neighbouring villages. Our mission is to unearth the strengths, capabilities, and assets of our local region and place these at the heart of our work.
We see the value in every facet of our community – from a humble lunch club or a carers support group to a dynamic outdoor activity team or a dedicated counselling service. Our aim is to map these invaluable resources, ensuring they are readily accessible to everyone.
We believe in the power of curiosity, of actively acknowledging the unique offerings that each member of our community has to contribute. Our commitment lies in forging meaningful connections, in nurturing relationships that are the backbone of our project.
As we journey along this path, we strive to empower community members, create versatile communal spaces, and encourage an integrative approach to wellbeing that aligns health, social, and economic services.
Curiosity
Wellbeing Swanage is all about being open to the possibilities that Swanage and the surrounding villages already contain. Through a process of exploration we want to discover the strengths, capacities and assets of our local area and place “what’s here” at the heart of this project.
These things could be as simple – and vital – as a lunch club, a carers support group, a playgroup, an outdoor activity group or a counselling service. We want to map these resources and make them easily accessible to all!
If you run such a group (for under £5 per session) please get in touch with us here.
Part of being curious is recognising that everyone in a community has something to offer and that the community is filled with both visible and less visible talents, desires and vision for the future. We can only discover these if we commit to listening – and we want to hear what everyone has to say.
Connection
We want to place an intentional effort to build and nourish relationships at the core of this project.
Everything we do will be an attempt to forge greater connections – individual to individual, individual to group, group to individual and between our community, health and social services.
As part of that desire we want to provide support and training so that as many community members as possible feel empowered to point friends, colleagues and neighbours to the support and services in Swanage and the surrounding villages – and to develop their own communities if there is a need for something new.
We also recognise that people forge connections in different ways so we will have a website with a searchable directory, social media accounts, face-to-face contact, information points in the community and an information phone line. We want to enable people to connect in the way that suits them best.
Community Hubs
Just as Wellbeing Swanage wants to explore the possibilities held within the individuals and groups in our town we also want to take a place-based approach, utilising local buildings and land. By developing spaces for community use – keeping them multipurpose and community led – we can increase the capacity of our local area to secure and grow connections.
We will build on the work that the Swanage and Purbeck Development Trust have done, helping turn the old Youth Centre site on Chapel Lane into a thriving community centre, childcare provider and local employer. We envision pushing this further – at both the Chapel Lane site and at Herston Village Hall – to create open, welcoming spaces where people can relax, feel safe, play, learn and seek support and advice as needed.
In addition to these indoor hubs we value the joy and connection being outdoors together can foster and so we will also look to explore and develop more of our blue and green spaces for community use. Greengage, a local social and therapeutic space for growing plants and produce, and soon to be member of the Trust, is an excellent example of this type of hub in action.
Importantly, we also want to make these spaces available for use at low cost by health, social and economic services, hopefully aiding in the development of an integrated and “whole person” approach to wellbeing.
