We are pleased to report the terrific success of our Community Recovery Project. In mid-February, we received a £24,810 grant from the Scottish Government’s Communities Recovery Fund towards our project to help local people recover from the aftereffects of the pandemic and increase their resilience and wellbeing.
The funding covered the period which started on the 19th of February until the 31st of May and was intended to support:
1) Our existing emergency services
– delivering free meals to people’s homes in our surrounding towns in South Lanarkshire through our online booking service;
– providing meals to our partner organisations in Glasgow;
– running online wellbeing services: yoga and meditation sessions.
During this period, our food emergency service distributed the total amount of 6,011 meals to our community and partner organisations – 3,681 of them locally, in South Lanarkshire.
Our online events, Mantra Music for Wellbeing, Community Restoration Station: meditation & wellbeing, and Online Yoga had a total number of 613 people who attended – an average of 205 people per month who have benefited from our wellbeing services.
2) Our free community recovery services offered at our Eco Farm since COVID-19 restrictions started to ease
– community therapeutic gardening;
– community yoga classes;
– community meditation classes.
During the funded period the Scottish Government’s regulations did not permit any group gathering, apart from the limited number of 15 people attending organised outdoor group sports from the end of April. Thus, we were not able to run face to face meditation sessions or therapeutic gardening during this period. However, we have installed a marquee in the OM Garden, in our Eco Farm in Lesmahagow, which allowed 10 people to participate in our outdoor yoga sessions over the weekends. From the last weekend of April until the end of May, 109 people attended our “FREE Community Yoga Outdoors!” sessions – that is 18 people per weekend, on average.
3) The development of our new website to make our services easy to find and book
Our new website https://wellbeingscotland.scot/ is almost ready! Our community will be able to easily find & book wellbeing services by categories such as Yoga & Meditation, Arts & Crafts, Festivals & Retreats, Life Coaching & Wisdom, Eco-living, and Sounds 4 the Soul. They will also have the opportunity to filter the services that suit them by activities, location and/or organisers.
4) The refurbishment of our Yoga Barn
The refurbishment of our Yoga Barn at our Eco Farm has been going strong! The space has enough capacity to accommodate at least 25 people with required social distancing for indoor activities like yoga, meditation, and community meals.
Important to mention that we have carried out a survey within our community in order to understand the type of services they see as most needed in terms of increasing wellbeing & recovery post COVID-19. 53% of the participants responded that they see yoga as the activity most needed, followed by meditation (52%) and therapeutic gardening (38% of respondents). More than 50% suggested that these services should be offered over weekends. The outcome of the survey was essential for understanding our communities needs and providing the support they need according to their availability. After yoga classes, for example, our guests were asked to fill a feedback form. 50% of yoga attendees found that practicing yoga has changed their mood from good to very good, followed by 14% who have increased from feeling neutral to very good.
We are very grateful to the Scottish Government’s Communities Recovery Fund for granting us this funding in order to provide support and collaborate to increase the resilience and wellbeing of our community.
Moreover, we are pleased to announce that we have plans to continue our Community Recovery Project over the summer. We will carry on offering a series of activities in our Eco Farm – and also online. You can book free sessions of online meditation & yoga and/or face to face therapeutic gardening & outdoor yoga. Click here to know more about the activities, dates and times.
In addition, we have organised Gratitude Day to bring our community members, volunteers, and food service users together on Sunday the 4th July and Sunday, 11th July. In gratitude for their extraordinary services during all these months, we want to retribute their support by providing wellbeing days with entertainment, relaxation and community meals to them and their families. If you have volunteered with us please book your space here. This event is funded by Virgin Media O2 Together Fund.
Our intention is to close our Summer Season Services by throwing a Wellbeing Festival of Autumn Colours on the 11th of September. The Festival of Colours is the happiest festival in the world & it aims to share joy, wellbeing, and values of harmony, compassion and equality of every living being!
Keep an eye on our website and social media profiles – Krishna Eco Farm, Bhakti Yoga Academy Scotland, and OM Sweet OM to follow up on our services. Check out the photos below to find out more about our Community Recovery Project.
