EqualsIW and Green Time will be supporting the Countryfile Children In Need Ramble 2022.
You can register your interest and purchase a bobble hat from the Children in Need web pages.
The Ramble is on Sunday 9th October starting at 11am with location details to be announced soon.
We want to help tell older people’s stories.
EqualsIW is encouraging older Isle of Wight residents from ethnic minority communities to join a project looking at their experiences on the island.
If you join you will be provided with a camera to take pictures that help tell your story about ageing on the Isle of Wight. You will meet with other residents in the spring and summer to identify important issues to address, to discuss your stories with others, and to help plan the communication of these stories.
If you or someone you know is 60 years of age or older, resides on the Isle of Wight, is a member of a minority community (for example: African, Polish, Chinese, Filipino, Arab, etc.), and is interested in taking part, please contact Dr Witcher
Presentation
All are welcome to a presentation about the project at
- The Riverside Centre, Newport
- 5 May 2 - 4pm
Can you help us learn more about your experiences as an older adult from an ethnic minority community on the Isle of Wight?
Study Details
Dr Chad Witcher from the University of Portsmouth and others want to learn more about ‘age-friendliness’ on the Isle of Wight.
The study is an opportunity to tell us your experiences by using a digital camera. You can discuss your views in a group with other older adults from ethnic minority communities. This follows work completed on the Isle of Wight by Age UK Isle of Wight.
What are we trying to do?
This is a small-scale study intended to reach older adults who may not have shared their experiences about an ‘age-friendly’ island. Often, members from ethnic minority communities are under-represented in research and we would like to encourage your participation to learn what may be missing from plans to support all older adults on the Isle of Wight.
Am I eligible to take part?
To participate in this study, you must meet the following criteria
- Age 60 years or older
- Identify yourself as a member of an ethnic minority community for example non-British which would include Polish, Filipino, African, Arab and so on
- Understand and communicate in English or be able to provide an interpreter.
What do I have to do?
If you decide to participate you will be asked to take part in several group discussions that will each last about two hours. You will be given a digital camera and asked to capture images that represent ‘age-friendliness.’
Your participation is entirely voluntary, and you have the right to withdraw at any time. Prior to providing your consent to participate, you will be given an information sheet which provides the full details of the study, and a consent form.
You will be able to discuss the study with the chief investigator Dr Chad Witcher .
To join the study please
- email
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or - telephone 023 9284 5194 asking for Chad Witcher.
A group of 12 people came together on Easter Saturday to take part in the first Green Time Walk Your Way to Health with the Equals IW Friendship Group for Friends and Family. A four mile round trip of 8,500 steps and 345 Kcalories.
The group started with a gentle walk from Quarr Abbey to visit Binstead Wood and Dame Anthony’s Common. Stopping to explore Play Lane Millennium Green and pond they found a fallen tree for a group picture. Some delicious homemade Spanish bread and cakes were enjoyed by all underneath the big oak tree in the centre of the Millennium Green.
The group headed back through Ladies Walk and Binstead Golf Course, stopping to learn about the Holy Cross Church in Binstead and to take photos under the blossom tree in full bloom. The group walked past Quarr Abbey and read the information board before returning back through the Abbey's Woodland Walk. The walk finished with refreshments in the garden of the Abbey Café. Mark talked with the group about chapels you can visit and the grave yard behind the main Monastery building.
The Abbey of Our Lady of Quarr is well worth a visit with a Visitors Centre, farm and book shop. You can tour the grounds and step inside the Monastery admiring the art on display.
We hope you enjoy a small selection of the photos from the walk
Why not look at our Green Time flyer for the Saturday 21st May 2022 walk
Green Time Walk Your Way to Health The Natural Way to Good Emotional Well-being and Mental Health
Equals IW is awarded £4,885 to deliver a new community programme called Green Time - The Natural Way to Good Emotional Well-being and Mental Health.
Equals IW received funding from the Isle of Wight Council to run Green Time as a programme of engagement activities through the Equals IW Friendship Groups. It is open to ages from children to grandparents and to all abilities. Participants will enhance their emotional well-being and mental health through physical exercise, creative stimulation and by taking a closer look at how food and mood are related. It will explore the role of good gut health and the impact food has on our overall mental wellness It will cover specific mental illnesses like depression and anxiety.
Green Time comprises of three core activities
- Green Time Walk Your Way To Health Guided Walks
- Green Time Green Skills
- Green Time Food and Mood
Green Time Walk Your Way to Health
These comprise guided walk sessions.
They will combine either an outdoor craft activity or an outdoor cooking activity linking positive emotional well-being with healthy outdoor food cooking. Delivered through the Equals IW Friendship Group for Friends and Family, these sessions will be open to children with parents, young people and adults with no upper age limit. The walks will enable people of all ages to enjoy the natural outdoors, through gentle physical exercise to stimulate positive emotional well-being and mental health. Exploring the outdoor natural environment through a guided walk gives an opportunity to learn about the local history, wildlife in areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) on the Isle of Wight. Whilst blending the use of technology (Apps) for Health, Fitness, Mindfulness and Nature.
Walking promotes brain activity and thinking time and will allow participants some mindfulness reflection. People who exercise regularly tend to do so because it gives them an enormous sense of well-being. They feel more energetic throughout the day, sleep better at night, have sharper memories, and feel more relaxed and positive about themselves and their lives. It is also a powerful medicine for many common mental health challenges. Regular exercise can have a profoundly positive impact on depression and anxiety. It also relieves stress, improves memory, helps you sleep better, and boosts your overall mood and you don’t have to be a fitness fanatic to reap the benefits. Research indicates that modest amounts of exercise can make a real difference. No matter your age or fitness level, Green Time will enable participants to use exercise as a powerful tool to deal with mental health problems, improve energy, outlook, and get more out of life.
Green Time Green Skills
These are three-hour craft sessions delivered through the Equals IW Friendship Group for women.
These sessions are open to women only and will enable them to come together through a range of craft activities that includes making costumes. Sessions will also focus on dance and music as way to physical exercise and to stimulate positive emotional well-being and mental health.
Green Time Green Skills allows participants to be creative through a range of art activities focused on recycling material. Creating art provides a distraction, giving your brain a break from your usual thoughts. The average person has roughly 70,000 thoughts per day and 90% of them are exactly the same, day in and day out. When you are totally immersed in a creative endeavour, you may find yourself in what is known as “the zone” or a state of “flow.” This meditative-like state focuses your mind and temporarily pushes aside all your worries. Creating art trains you to concentrate on details and pay more attention to your environment, in this way, it acts like meditation. Creative activities can also really help people deal with different kinds of trauma and negative feelings, by having a calming effect on the brain and body.
Green Time Food and Mood
Three-hour sessions delivered through the Equals IW Friendship Group for women. These sessions are open to women only and will enable them to come together with a professional dietitian and see how eating well can help you feel better. Sessions will focus on the importance of eating regularly, staying hydrated and eating a balanced diet. It covers the role of carbohydrates and the right balance of proteins and fats and the importance of vitamins, minerals and looking after your gut health. There are psychological, social and biological benefits of eating meals with other people. Participants will together have an opportunity to learn how to make a selection of healthy foods from different cultures.
>Read More: Green Time Community Programme Funded
Equals IW is awarded £4,885 to deliver a new community programme called Green Time - The Natural Way to Good Emotional Well-being and Mental Health.
Green Time Key Elements
Green Time has five key elements running through the entire programme
- Connect with people around you to support and enrich your everyday life
- Be active as exercising makes you feel good, step outside.
- Take notice to be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling.
- Keep Learning new things will make you more confident as well as being fun.
- Give or do something nice for someone. Volunteer or join a community group.
Green Time Will
- Promote social renewal by bringing local communities together to experience the joy of engaging with other people to promote positive emotional well-being and mental health through fun and enjoyable engagement activities.
- Improved and maintained health and social well-being.
- Bringing together people from all backgrounds, cultures and income groups, embracing cultural enrichment.
- Promotion of equality, diversity and understanding of own culture and those of others
- Using effective local partnerships to bring together key providers and relevant local agencies and services.
- Supporting the wide use of online information and learning resources.
- Enhanced personal development and social skills, enhancing own self-confidence, self-belief and self-esteem, motivation.
- Enable participants to have the ability to feel safe in a group.
- Enable participants to make new friends and to have a healthy sense of self-worth and confidence to independently contribute to local community and wider society.
Green Time - The Natural Way to Good Emotional Well-being and Mental Health
Regarding Data protection we do not escape the legislation but have an exemption from registering with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) based mainly on keeping only basic membership details and just email addresses with the wider world. We can use the members mobile numbers and emails for messaging to do with EqualsIW. If we start recording that members affirm to various principles, or use our membership list in any other way then we would have to register at a cost of £40 per annmum.
If an encrypted Usb memory stick were used to keep members data that would be unacceptable to the ICO as Usb sticks are easily mislaid. We have to ensure data is not lost as well as it being secure.
Currently there is no definitive list of EqualsIW member that I am aware of. Just a policy of checking once a year after AGM the list of email addresses used for EqualsIW communication. Should a list of members be created we would need to keepit secure and safe. Our mailbox would be ideal for this as it provides long term secure storage that is accessable ony to those that would need it.
Regardless of registering with the ICO we need to have written policies and procedures which include an element of checking that things are done in accordance. We have some policies published on the website at https://www.equalsiw.org.uk/find-out-more/policies.
In addition we have an email policy that ensures we don't keep data for too long. Some important emails are kept permanently. The secretary or IT support (me) checks the mailbox normally monthly and decides whether each email should be kept 1, 3 or 12 months and then deletes out-of-time emails.
We also have an email procedure that was designed for shared use of the mailbox
We also have a procedure when personal data is put on the website. We have adapted it slightly in the light of experience and remain compliant with the legislation as far as we can tell.
1. Photos taken in the street and other public places fall outside the scope GDPA requiring written permission. 2. Photos taken at WOW and similar private places do need some kind of written confirmation. So long as no names are added to the images and Mark emails me to say that everyone involved has agreed to their image being on the website then individual written permission is not taken. 3. If a name is specified a written or emailed permission from thatb person is required and it would be kept in the repository for permanent keeping. We have only done that once.
Rex
This is to confirm the Committee Meeting will be on
- Tuesday 8th March 6.30pm to approx 8.30pm
- Riverside Centre Newport.
Non Committee Members are also welcome to attend.
This is to confirm the Committee Meeting will be on
- Tuesday 8th February 6.30pm to 8.30pm
- Riverside Centre Newport.
Non Committee Members are also welcome to attend.