Our London Catalyst project has now come to an end, and we wanted to share some of the feedback we received with you.
Over the course of a year we working with 55 unpaid carers across the boroughs of Hackney and Tower Hamlets, in partnership with the City and Hackney Carers Centre and the Carers Centre Tower Hamlets. We ran 5 enormously popular coaching workshops on topics such as time management, dealing with difficult emotions, and re-writing your life story, and and delivered 60 hours of 1-2-1 coaching. We ask all our carers for feedback, and these of some of the things they said:
100% of carers found the workshops useful, mainly because they gained new perspectives and insights but also because they were able to make plans, set goals, learn new things and try them out
80% of carers said that after the coaching workshop they felt better able to start/continue/stop caring because of what they learned in the workshop, which they put down to developing coping strategies, learning useful skills and information, and generally feeling more positive and motivated.
Everyone who had 1-2-1 coaching felt they made progress as a result of the sessions. The most important thing they said they gained was self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and self-compassion. This meant they were able to make sustainable changes, such as new ways of thinking about themselves, life, or the unknown. Most people talked about increased confidence and how by tackling one thing they developed confidence to tackle other things. Coaching gave them a sense of possibility, momentum to do something different, meant they took themselves more seriously and introduced better boundaries. They feel more hopeful, positive and proactive and less guilty about focusing on themselves, and able to recover their health.
We are so pleased with the impact this project had, and are hugely grateful to London Catalyst for funding this work. Thank you to all the amazing carers who got involved. We are forever inspired by your courage and resilience.