Skylight mental health is a community mental health mental service which believes in the capacity of within a person to enjoy a meaningful life. Skylight links to wellbeing provides counselling and support services with an experienced mental health clinician for people who are experiencing mental illness, to connect with the community to learn and explore and make space for new opportunities. Creating environments of understanding, optimism and courage through individual support, group activities, and respite and community education.
Skylight has a number of social wellness programs that provides a way for people to socialize, develop new friendship, learn new skills and develop a range of activities in the area. A range of programs are offered in different disciplines including music, art, cooking and bush walking etc. The community hubs by Skylight not only focus on empowerment and supports of women and children, they offer men’s support groups as see in the Murray lands Community Hub. Skylight programs offered to support people experience mental health issues range include active and social, learn and discover coaching building structure, daily living connection with a support worker, family and care connections, therapeutic services, country wellness connections, support coordination NDIS, plan management NDIS, links to wellbeing, family mental health support service remote indigenous community, training about the stigma of mental health to communities. (Skylight, 2019)
Briefly describe the community development project (background, context, goals and aims, and resources, including funding)
Crisis skylight is a community project that focuses on promoting social integration primarily for the single homelessness or the people who are at the risk or those with the history of being homeless. The community project is based on the crisis model of change that seeks to provide good health and wellbeing, employment, financial stability, good relationships and creation of social networks. The project aims to achieve this by equipping the homeless members with basic skills and art based activities that can enable them to progress and be absorbed in formal and informal paid jobs. The project also provides extensive access to a number of opportunities to the homeless people which can lead them to access higher education and professional training. The project has a vast source of grands. The changing lives grand is one of the grands that can help an individual can help a community member to access further education or have a way in which they can start their own business.
The program is flexible and it is usually intended to respond positively to the expressed needs to the desires and the needs of the homeless.Skighlight staff are usually expected to observe respect, be none judgmental and always desire to make an impact to any member that has subscribed to the project. The community development project provides art based activities and basic education, training skills together with support aimed at supporting the housing and the extensive one to one support designed to help the homeless people be competent enough to acquire paid jobs
Briefly critically analyze how the project works towards social justice and empowerment
Most of the mental health programs have the goal of working towards social justice and empowering the community.Skilight crisis community project also pursues the same goals in a number of ways. Looking at the projects aims and objectives and its commitment to continue serving the people in this communities, the following elements of empowerment are present in the Crisis community health program.
The participants have the decision to make power. The program does not prey on the vulnerability of its members. Despite the fact that one is homeless and in one way or another may fail be inadequate in making the right decisions, the staffs and the organization allows the members of this programs to think for themselves and arrive at a point where they can comfortable make their decisions, including being able to choose the type of skills that they want to achieve. Skylight staffs are usually expected to be none judgmental and respect the decisions that the crisis project members make in relation to what they want to pursue.
The project avails a number of skills that the members can choose to persue.There are basic skills on hand that are offered to the project members. Other skills include basic financial skills and art based skills. This skills are aimed at helping the community members to be competent enough and be in a position to go out there and request for jobs in the Job market. Crisis community project also has a parallel program that help contribute to academic excellency of the community members who may chose to focus on academics and pursue the course up to the college and university level. The community project has a scholarship program that can help one to achieve his dreams comfortable and be able to scale up the employment ladder without the fear of financial hurdles.
The third element of empowerment present in Crisis homeless community project is that the project can help one to effect change in his or her life by turning on a new leave. Acquiring a skill means that the person will never be the same again, he or she could have acquired some type of mastery that will enable him to survive in the near future regardless of her situation. He or she will be comfortable to approach an organization or a government agency to seek for an employment opportunity
Crisis community project by Skighlight works towards social justice by making the people who are homeless, at the risk of being homeless or a history of being homeless to feel comfortable enough to start working on their dreams by acquiring skills that can help them secure jobs in the labor markets.
Discuss how you would work alongside community members on this project, utilizing learning from this course to justify your approach
To be able to achieve success in such like a community, project, it will be equally important to understand the type of people that you are working with and how best you can plan for them to have their concerns and issues addressed appropriately. In this case therefore the homeless community will be helped based on two themes of work. The internet allows for online tutoring and can be one of the most effective ways to help the majority of the homeless people acquire skills with less skills. The online tutoring courses will be offered for free to all the community project members. They will only be acquired to have devices that can enable them access the lessons and the materials that are offered in the clases.The online courses will include both accredited and none accredited that will aim to improve the employability prospects of the community project members. Apart from teaching the online courses, there will be physical classes that will be offered in different classes. There will be individual coaching to offer more intensive support by providing guidance in relation to housing, wellbeing and the job creation prospects. The coaches will be continuously available to help the members reach a point of stability where they are in a good position to concentrate on gaining important qualifications or seek employment. The members will scale up the ladder depending on how fast they can master the hands on skills. Members will be allowed to have access to both to the online courses and the coaches that will be present in their respective locations.