One of the great things about working within a community is that for every problem identified, community members can nearly always come up with a solution.
We saw this very clearly with our 2024 Participant Survey. We asked the question: “What is making it hard to live your best life at the moment?” While 45% of respondents answered “Nothing much. Things are actually OK,” the majority of respondents identified really clear reasons for life feeling less than fantastic.
Cost of living pressure was the number one cause for concern (27%), closely followed by worries about world events (23%), climate anxiety, and physical health challenges (both 18%). Mental health challenges were reported by 15% of respondents as being a barrier to living life fully. Housing worries, job insecurity and loneliness were also reasons people gave for feeling less than comfortable at the minute.
Hearing people’s concerns is one thing. Working out how best to respond is another. Luckily, this community is extraordinarily resilient and many people have already identified ways to help themselves. As a follow up to the previous question, we asked: “What activities help you feel happy or less stressed?” This was an open ended question but answers overwhelmingly fell into a few distinct categories:
Movement or exercise was the number one way people helped themselves to feel better. This was very closely followed by art or creative practice and connecting with other people. Getting out into nature came in fourth place.
Hearing this kind of feedback is hugely helpful to us at KNH as it lets us to know we are on the right track with our programs. This year we increased low-cost exercise options from 3 to 5 programs a week. We continue to offer a huge range of creative programs and multiple different social activities.
Sometimes our community needs things we don’t have the skills or training to provide. In that case, we do our best to link up with other groups who can help. For instance a Spanish speaking AA group has run here for over 40 years. An English speaking AA group runs on Thursday nights and an Al-Anon Family Group runs every Saturday morning. We can also connect people in with GROW Australia for mental health peer support.
If you have ideas for activities you would like to see or groups you think would be helpful, please get in touch on 9376 6366 or email info@kenhouse.org.au
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