At a time when many people had suffered increased stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health issues following the pandemic, SELCRP wanted to offer 60‐second stress relief workshops and goody bags to passengers and station staff Manchester Piccadilly and Wigan North Western Stations. The project aimed to provide customers with a positive experience to promote health and wellbeing, and help people feel more relaxed in returning to the railway. We also wanted to offer this to station staff as a way to offer support and encourage engagement in community rail.
The CRP officer consulted with local community theatre organisation ‘Ordinary Glory’, who work with people from a range of diverse backgrounds and have previously delivered a variety of activities around self‐care and promoting good mental health and wellbeing. Bespoke, handmade self‐care kits were then created specifically for the project, including a variety of contents such as postcards, acts of kindness prompts, chocolates, tea bags, sunflower seeds for planting and a ‘zine’ with wellbeing tips and signposting information.
The project was intended to have a simple yet positive effect on rail users, staff and general public passing through the station, by providing an unexpected opportunity to engage in self‐care, wellbeing and stress‐relief techniques that they could then carry forward on their ‘journey’.
A total of 500 kits were handed out over 4 sessions in May/June 2022. We hope that the project helped to improve the wellbeing of everyone involved, and increased awareness of the importance of self‐care and good mental health.
We are proud to have put a smile on many peoples face throughout the project, and would like to continue this initiative in the near future.
