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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. It controls who has access and how long various classes of email are kept before deletion. This needs updating soon as it has not worked and quickly if we change to rotating secretaries. Perhaps the ongoing secretary could discuss this with me when the secretary situation is resolved.

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.

Equals IW Friendship Group For Women return with their first public event since the Covid-19 lockdown. 

They have a stand from 9am to 4pm 2nd October at the Saturday Market in St Thomas's Square, Newport, Isle of Wight.

The stand has information about the Friendship Group's activities and promotes the new partnership programme with MCEnhancement.

**Now cancelled due to weather**

The weather forecast of high winds has prevented the Equals IW Friendship Group For Women attending the Saturday Market in St Thomas's Square, Newport, Isle of Wight on 2nd October 2021.

The safety of the stand and personnel would have been in doubt.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.

The committee met on Thursday 19th August 2021. As well as items of internal matters the following items were discussed

• Committee Member Recruitment - EqualsIW is to contact the Isle of Wight College and Six Form Colleges offering an opportunity in future projects for students to develop their careers by gaining practical experience within a charity.
• Iwight.com - EqualsIW to open an account for advertising events such as Asian Day, Diversity Day and Friendship Groups Activities.
• EqualsIW is to consider formalising membership with a personal declaration and a nominal fee of £1.
• EqualsIW Secretary - The position will become vacant in November. A replacement is needed for EqualsIW to continue as a charity.
• The Friendship Group's WhatsApp Page is to be the preferred communication channel for internal EqualsIW. The website will continue
  to publish events, case studies and activities.
• Remote attendance at meetings is to be supported by using a WhatsApp group linked to a nominee attending the meeting.
• Indoor activities remain suspended due to Covid-19 concerns. The November meeting is to consider re-starting in Jaanuary 2022. 
• EqualsIW is planning a group mainland visit for 2022.

A copy of the minutes is available on request to the secretary.

EqualsIW has joined with other organisations in producing a three day personal development programme called Green Time.

1. Day 1 focuses on key elements of personal development:
   Communication skills
   Team building
   Personal strengths, skills, and abilities
   Attitudes.
2. Day 2 comprises a circular walk of five miles and involves the making of wooden planters and a health fitness exercise.
3. Day 3 concerns the growing one's own food, food miles, and food from different cultures around the world. The group will make and share a meal together.

   Read more: Green Time - Exploring the Great Outdoors

We are please to announce our first committee meeting since before the start of the Covid 19 lockdown.

• Thursday 19th August 2021
• 6.30pm to 8.00pm
• Rylstone Gardens Shanklin

The meeting will decide the direction of Equals IW including the Friendship Groups between September 2021 and February 2022. The outdoor location is to enable good social distancing in an environment that is safer than indoors in relation to Covid 19. Attendees will need to bring a fold up garden chair. If that is not possible contact Mark as he can provide a good number. Mark can also help if a lift is needed from Newport. The surrounding roads have good free parking all short distance from the park.

Further details are available.