Becoming Belonging

 Becoming Belonging will spread awareness of how our emotional states impact our health, just as diet and exercise do. It will highlight how trauma lives in our bodies, and the need for body-based ways to work with it.

It meets all three of the ward’s priorities:

·        Health and well-being (as seen in the ACEs study, stored trauma increases the risk of many health conditions like diabetes and heart disease)

·        Participation (because our nervous system state, often a result of stored trauma, will affect how able we are to participate)

·        Safety (because stored trauma can affect how safe we feel, and also how safe we can be for others)

Becoming Belonging will distribute simple practices and prompts to residents in easy-to-digest, bite-size pieces, over the course of the year.

The cards will invite residents to pause and slow down, and experience a moment of connecting with themselves. It will also invite them to return to the material, repeating the experience, over and over again. 

Cards will also be available in community hubs like Forest Gate Library.

Residents will be invited to offer their experiences of the project at the Becoming Belonging website, which will also host more information and resources.