The Wisdom Principle held their second event of the year on Saturday, 23rd July at Acorn House and what an event it was! The event looked at Generational BAME Mental Wellbeing and I had the pleasure of attending with two hats on. One as a volunteer on behalf of Community Action: MK and the other as an interested member of the BAME community with a strong interest in mental wellbeing.

Who are The Wisdom Principle and what do they do?

The Wisdom Principle also known as TWP is a BAME-led organisation working in Milton Keynes with the Mental Health Alliance to undertake action based research into the access, outcomes and experience of people from ethnic minority communities in Milton Keynes. This work will inform the NHS on how they can adapt services and approaches to better support people from ethnic minority communities. TWP is also a member of The Intercultural Forum – a network of groups supporting Minority Ethnic communities in Milton Keynes.

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During the session, we explored methods of communication between generations – Verbal and non-verbal cues. This really stood out to me and I learnt that between generations and households, sometimes expectations are ‘just there’ and therefore, they don’t need to be spoken about out loud.

Is this something you can relate to? Within your family do you use a lot of verbal or non-verbal cues? Or is it a mixture of both? What positives and challenges do you feel these communication styles bring? What change can you make that could impact your own and/or your families mental wellbeing? This is just one topic that we were encouraged to think about. Not only within the session, but also as a take home topic too!

The most enjoyable part of the event for me was contributing to the group Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is a hopeful and inspiring approach to working with children, young people and adults who have experienced hard times. It enables people to speak about their lives in ways that are not retraumatizing, but instead strengthens their relationships with their own history, their culture, and significant people in their lives.

It involves people drawing their own ‘tree of life’ in which they get to speak of their ‘roots’ (where they come from), their skills and knowledge, their hopes and dreams, as well as the special people in their lives.

Not only were we encouraged to engage with this activity within the session, we were also encouraged to further explore this work within our own time. I truly believe this approach brings a unique opportunity to discuss our lives and clearly see what and who is important to us. Within the session, there was a strong emphasis on ‘relationships.’ You may feel like you want to develop some new relationships in your life? Why not have a look at CA:MK’s volunteering page for some unique and exciting opportunities within your local area!

That’s all from me for now but if you have any questions please do contact The Wisdom Principle via their email – info@thewisdomprinciple.co.uk. Please do remember you can contact them directly about their services here.

Oh and one last thing… save the date of Saturday, 15th October for the next TWP event. More information will be coming your way soon – you don’t want to miss it!