Photo: L to R, Dr Tim Rigg, Director, Southern Wellbeing Trust, Susan Finlay, CE Central Lakes Trust and Anna Dorsey, GM Southern Wellbeing Trust.

The Central Lakes Trust is granting $50,000 to help more Queenstown community members to support their mental wellbeing and resilience.

The funding is being given to the Southern Wellbeing Trust, to support operational costs and the ongoing delivery of the community-based GoodYarn mental wellbeing workshops during 2022.

The workshops were piloted during the 2021-2022 year, to help migrants, new parents and those working with vulnerable community members, to better understand their mental health and increase knowledge and confidence in talking to people around them who are struggling. Following the success of these initial workshops, the Trust will continue to bring the workshops to Queenstown Lakes in 2022 using their network of trained peer facilitators who are from those communities they seek to support.

The funding support from Central Lakes Trust will mean that more migrants, new parents, and community partners will be able to participate in the subsidised workshops and continue to support their mental wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around them.

“We understand the need in the community for mental health support, and the GoodYarn programme is helping to meet that need. Supporting operational costs for local social services has long been a priority for the trustees. Approximately a third of our annual grants budget goes towards supporting these core services for the benefit of our community,” says Central Lakes Trust Grants Manager, Mat Begg.

“We are delighted to receive the ongoing support of Central Lakes Trust,” said Anna Dorsey, General Manager. “We know from early reports that these workshops are really reaching into those parts of the community who do need more support right now and who may not be accessing traditional avenues of care, so they are really helping us to better protect the wellbeing and resilience of our people during this challenging time. This latest grant will mean we can continue to keep delivering targeted support for those communities and help us all to help each other.”

The Southern Wellbeing Trust plans to continue to deliver GoodYarn Community workshops after the pilot officially ends in April, with small business workshops hoping to be added to the portfolio of workshops being delivered, subject to funding. For more information about upcoming workshops visit www.southernwellbeingtrust.org