Wellbeing
Looking after your wellbeing means looking after your body and mind. Taking care to eat a heathy balanced range of foods, keeping your body moving with physical activities, keeping your brain active with games, puzzles, reading and creative activities, and understanding your emotions to help keep your mental health balanced.
Even if you are aware you don't feel quite right, It can take time and self reflection to understand what it is that may be wrong. You may want to change but don't know where to start, or you may be reluctant to make changes in your lifestyle and wonder if it's worth it.
Healthy Body
Think of your body as a machine. You need the right fuel and maintenance to keep it running.
Whether you have a busy life and your body struggles to keep up, or you feel the need to become more active, eating a balanced diet along with regular exercise is the key to keeping your body healthy.
We regularly have keep fit professionals at our sessions to give gentle exercising classes, chair aerobics or take outdoor walking groups. Adding fresh fruit and veg to your daily meals is a great way to boost your vitamins and minerals intake, as well as creating some tasty dinners!
How We Can Help
Glebe Farm Community Fridge - Every Tuesday, you can collect a box of fresh, affordable food, carefully selected to help you and your family eat well without stretching your budget. Click here for more details.
North Solihull Food Bank - From 12.30 -2.30pm Every Thursday, our Shard End Community Centre hosts a Food Bank. To get involved you need a referral and ticket from North Solihull Food Bank, click here for your referral - Locations | North Solihull Foodbank
Luncheon Club - Held at our Shard End Community Centre every Wednesday and Friday. Click here for more details.
Soup and Sit - Free soup to warm you up on a Thursday afternoon at our Glebe Farm Community Hub.
Click here for more details.
Healthy Mind
Keeping your mind healthy starts with an understanding of what it needs. Do you need to occupy your mind more? Or help it to wind down and relax?
A happy medium between these is a good target. As we get older, our cognitive abilities can start to deteriorate so it’s important to exercise our mind as well as the body. We can do this with the help of keeping the brain active, occupied and interested. It could be word or maths puzzles, quizzes, hobbies or deep dive research in something that interests you.
How We Can Help
Books - The library collection at our Glebe Farm Community Hub holds hundreds of reference books in a wide subject range for research. Of if you need your mind to relax and wind down, try fiction and get lost in a story. All you need to bring is your Birmingham Library card. Click here for more details.
Computers - Our PC’s are available for research and recreation. Internet is always available or if you need the computer to write and create, or if you have your own laptop, you are welcome to bring it along and use our internet. Click here for more details.
Sessions - Birmingham Mind hold sessions at our Glebe Farm Community Hub every Thursday 10 – 2pm. Come along for support, guidance and wellbeing activities. Click here for more details.
Mindful Mondays - A chance to relax and connect every Monday morning at our Glebe Farm Community Hub. Click here for more details.
Drugs and Alcohol
Dependency on drugs or alcohol can creep up on you. Whether you start for fun, or to help relieve stress or anxiety, substance use may seem to help at the outset, but can become problematic over time, affecting your health, ability to work and your relationships.
If you want to take the first steps towards coming to terms with dependency and start working towards recovery, there are free services, commissioned by the Government via local councils that can help you.
Dependency is isolating. There is a whole community of people in recovery, or working towards recovery, who will understand exactly what you are going through and be pleased to support you on your own unique journey.
How We Can Help
If you live in the Borough of Solihull, Solihull Integrated Addictions Services (SIAS) is your free (public health funded) treatment and recovery provider. Click this link to access the service: SIAS Referral
If you live in Birmingham, Change Grow Live is your free (public health funded) treatment and recovery provider. Click this link to access the service: Change Grow Live Referral
Worries
Worries can soon pile up and feel unmanageable. This can often lead to the problems you are worrying about being ignored, rather than dealt with.
If your worries have become a weight you carry around all the time, it's time to unburden yourself. You need to talk, and no matter what your worries are, we can help to solve them.
Take the first step to talk to someone, and that will lead you in the right direction.
How We Can Help
Welcome Change - a good starting point is often a simple cuppa and a chat. Our staff are always on hand to make you a hot drink and talk things through. Maybe all you need is someone to listen, but if you need more expert advice or support, we can usually find the right person or organisation to help.
Gain - is a service dedicated to adults who are 25+ with no dependent children, that provides financial advice and support. Gain visits our Glebe Farm Community Hub every Thursday. Please call: 0121 289 7780 for an appointment.
Birmingham Mind - offers support, guidance, and wellbeing activities. Connect with trained staff and take part in sessions designed to support mental health in a safe and friendly environment. You can drop in to see Birmingham Mind at our Glebe Farm Community Hub on Thursday mornings.
Self Care
Self care takes form in many ways and will vary as much as our individual lives vary. Whether you only have yourself to take care of or a whole family, it's vital to look after your own physical and mental wellbeing.
Instances such as depression, unemployment, isolation, lack of mobility, or a hectic busy schedule can result in self care starting to slip. A lack of self care can begin with a lack of routine, resulting in skipping daily personal care such as washing and bathing, cleaning the house, skipping meals or simply never having time to yourself.
How We Can Help
At Welcome Change we care about the community, and every individual matters. We have weekly and monthly sessions to choose from that can help with your self care. Whether you need advice on your mental heath, Occupational Therapy Advice if you have limited mobility, people to talk to if you feel alone, or a quiet space if you need to get away from a hectic household. Whatever your personal situation, we can help you find a way to to help yourself.
Click on our timetable page below and see what might suit you, alternatively pop in and have a chat with our staff and volunteers...
Community Connection
There are many benefits to becoming an active member of your local community, both for you and the local area.
Evidence shows that a sense of purpose and connection can improve your health and prolong your life; it can improve your mood and sense of wellbeing, give you a feeling of achievement and satisfaction, bring laughter and joy, new friends and new skills, as well as increase your confidence and give you a sense of belonging.
The benefits to the community include that it can make your area safer, cleaner, more attractive and that together you can lobby for improvements and make change happen.
Whatever your reasons are, we are here to provide a safe space for you to make those connections.
How We Can Help
Glebe Farm Community Hub - We have an open door policy Monday to Friday, so you are always welcome to drop in, whether we have sessions on or not. If you feel like looking over a book or two from our library collection, there's always a seat free and a cup of tea waiting. And if you fancy a chat, there are always a few friendly faces ready to listen.
To find out ways to get involved locally, click to our dedicated Community Connection page here