Update – I did it – thank you! I also blogged about it for Mind – Exercise, mental health and taking on Ride London.
Category: Work & Projects
Community moderation training for OCDAction
Last week I ran a session on community moderation for OCDAction. Unlike my session for Leeds Mind (which was for community managers and focused on developing a moderation strategy) this session was for moderators themselves. OCDAction have an established community but they want to expand their moderator team and make sure their current moderation practices are as…
An introduction to community moderation
This week I travelled up to Leeds to run a workshop I called ‘An introduction to moderating online communities’. It was attended by three groups associated with Leeds Mind. All of them were thinking about online peer support. Some had a platform built and in testing. Others were still figuring out what, if anything, they…
Standing up to stigma – why I blog about work, projects & my mental health in one place
Pressing pause Every time I go to press ‘publish’ on a tricky post exploring my mental health I pause for a moment. The way my blog has developed means that my personal struggles and successes sit alongside blogs about my work and details of my skills, training and experience. Should I keep them separate? Will employers reject…
APP’s online peer support services: vital and life changing
“I’ll always remember the first time I met a ‘PP lady’. It was a very special day.” “I had lots of friends who were mums but none of them understood what I was going through. I felt weird, lonely and isolated. When I found the forum I was like ‘Oh my god. People understand.” Last Saturday…
Setting up a new community – defining roles in moderation and peer support.
Consultancy for The Katie Piper Foundation In September I was contacted by Kerry from The Katy Piper Foundation. The Foundation supports people living with burns and scars. Kerry was looking for more information on managing online forums. She was particularly interested in moderation strategies and procedures for managing safeguarding and escalation. We had an initial chat on…
Engagement, co-design and community moderation on the Elefriends community at Mind
I’ve just finished 9 months working on the mental health peer support community Elefriends. The role was a maternity cover post and focused on community engagement as well as moderation training and support. So what did I get up to? Six co-design workshops with community members I organised and co-facilitated six co-design workshops with community…
New youth resources for the Miscarriage Association
“People said it was lucky really. I don’t know how to deal with that” This quote was one of many we gathered from young women we spoke to during the youth project consultation process I ran for the Miscarriage Association. It highlighted the need for additional support resources that reflected the experiences of younger people….
Running for Sane – Christie’s story
Exercise for mental health I’ve been thinking a lot about sport, and running for mental health recently. This is partly due to work – I’m involved in the development of Mind’s Get Set To Go programme through the Elefriends community. I’ve also written a number of posts for New Level on the benefits of exercise for…
Overcoming barriers to accessing therapy – a post for the RSCPP
RSCPP connects people with local registered therapists. It also contains articles and resources about issues you might face and the types of therapy available. Of course, these are private therapists. And therapy isn’t cheap (although if you get the right help, it can be immensely valuable). Much of the work I have done in the past…
Developing youth resources with the Miscarriage Association and Brook
Stage 1 – Online and face to face workshops with young people “I’ve honestly literally never spoken about my experience with anyone since I left sixth form, this is the first (and possibly last) time – but I’m happy that I’m using it to hopefully help others” I was recently approached by the Miscarriage Association to…
‘Crazy’ by Amy Reed – a review of a YA book about bipolar disorder.
A review of Crazy by Amy Reed – published by Simon and Schuster It’s hard to truly imagine what depression or bipolar disorder is actually like. The language of mental health is woefully inadequate. The word ‘depression’ has become part of the spectrum of everyday language used to describe feeling sad. We’ve all said or…
How do you run a good training session in an online chat room? 17 tips and ideas.
Last night I ran an online training session for YouthNet’s chat moderator volunteers (I’ve written a post about what is is like to moderate real time support chat for young people here). We all joined a chat room in YouthNet’s online volunteer community for an evening session. The focus of this chat was talking therapies…
Guardian Voluntary Sector Network Xmas Volunteering
Representing online volunteering in the Guardian Just before Christmas I wrote a piece for the Guardian on why I volunteer at Christmas. It was a personal explanation of my motivation to volunteer, why I’ve continued to do so since leaving YouthNet and why it’s particularly important at Christmas. It was one of a series on Christmas…