Harvesting Wellbeing with Hilda Campbell, COPE Scotland
Our 4th and final Rural SEN session of 2024 had a focus on ‘Harvesting Wellbeing’ with Hilda Campbell from COPE Scotland leading the session. The session was funded by the Community Learning Exchange Fund from the Scottish Community Alliance. We were joined by 23 participants representing different Third Sector organisations from across Scotland.
Discovery and Action Dialogue (DAD) of the Liberating Structures method were used in the session to stimulate discussions in small breakout groups as it encouraged open dialogue and collective insight to find better solutions to common and shared problems.
We created this case study report in collaboration with Hilda, to summarise the key points that we learned from the session to serve as a resource for reflection and learning.
Why Wellbeing of The Workforce Matters?
Individuals within the Third Sector face numerous challenges in their daily work lives. In addition to the challenges of financial insecurity and sustainability in the sector, there are other stressors that add to the burdens.
- Persistent exposure to others’ suffering— can lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout (compassion fatigue).
- Ever increasing demands on third sector services at a time of shrinking resources.
- Social enterprises often deliver essential services directly to communities at no cost to ensure that there are no barriers to access. At the same time, they are constantly trying to cover these costs from other resources.
- When workers feel overwhelmed, they start questioning their efficacy and this may lead to low confidence.
- The desire to “fix” insurmountable problems is a natural one, but many issues are rooted in systemic factors beyond any one individual or organisation’s control.
- Changes in legislation, external factors beyond the social enterprise’s control e.g. rising fuel prices, increased demand from people affected by the cost-of-living crisis and other factors (e.g. loss of the winter fuel payment and policies which have cost implications, changes in employers National Insurance contributions.)
Human resources are the most precious resources of any group or organisation, and it is important for people to perform at their best while also experiencing a positive state of health and wellbeing.
Time to Pause
Our session started off with a simple activity: asking attendees to be present in the moment in order to pause and unwind. Building time into the day to pause can help reduce stress and encourage responding to situations as opposed to reacting.
Exchanging Experiences – The Liberating Structures DAD Method
We used the Discovery and Action Dialogue (DAD) of the Liberating Structures method to stimulate discussions in small breakout groups as this method encourages open dialogue and collective insight to find better solutions to common and shared problems.
The exchange involved exploring some of the challenges experienced in both rural and urban settings based on two simple questions; ‘What are the challenges that you noticed in rural/urban settings?’ and ‘What helps in improving the wellbeing in rural/urban settings?’.
It was interesting that while there were some unique differences, there were also areas shared in common. Below are some examples of the experiences shared by the participants, there are many more.
Some of the challenges shared in rural and urban settings
- Transport
- Social isolation and loneliness
- Repeat clients who have not been able to move on and keep coming back for support.
- Barriers to digital connectivity
Specific challenges for rural settings
- Lack of anonymity. Can make it harder to create boundaries between work and personal life.
- It’s difficult to get away from work and switch off as they’re always surrounded by their community
- Very small communities with lots of dual relationships.
- Living rurally also means you must keep up and represent the workplace. Difficulty getting away from work in either setting can make it difficult to have the energy to selfcare
Specific challenges for urban setting
- The noise and bustle of the city can be overwhelming if you need some peace and quiet and you don’t have a garden or park nearby.
- The sheer number of partner organisations and competition for funding can sometimes make collaboration a challenge.
Breakout-room Discussions
Participants were then put into small breakout rooms to have discussions based on two questions
- How would you recognise compassion-fatigue and burnout in yourself or your team?
- What does your team/organisation currently do to help reduce compassion fatigue and burnout?
After the discussions, participants were invited to reflect on the discussion to share some of the outcomes. The following are some of the key themes that came up.
- Creativity plays a key role in tackling challenges
- The importance of connection and close relationships
- The importance of developing a ‘culture of wellbeing’ in organisations by enhancing organisational policies
- Creating space for informal connections and having options for independent support
In the second part of the group discussions, the participants were asked to discuss some good practices and focus on what actions were needed. They were then invited to share one thing that they learned from the session and one idea they wanted to share with others.
‘One thing that I learned from the exchange…’
- Doodling for well-being and Zen-tangles
- Don’t look at emails via phone while out walking.
- Separate work and personal phone (and don’t look at the work one out of hours)
- Reminded of the importance of outside time in middle of the day especially in winter.
- Culture is important – setting examples of self-care is important such as getting outside and leaving time to walk and talk.
- Walking away is not failure, you can learn from it
‘One thing I want to share in the exchange…’
- We benefited from doing a daily dance for the month of October.
- Highly recommended Digital Detox…excellent!
- Talk to peers, you are not alone
- Boundaries around work.
- Taking time for self-care is a good investment
