SHARING

By Laura Cordell

Kindness Around The World From Dartford

We are a multi-generational peer support group. We have members from approx. 3-83 and everyone supports each other. We offer a warm space to enjoy a cuppa, crafting and activities in a safe and friendly environment. Everyone is welcome and valued. Vicki has 2 children aged 9 and 3 and says they “are all welcomed to the group with a smile and positivity every week”.

On 1st Jan 2020 I set up Kindness Community on Facebook with the aim of uniting people around the world through kindness and positivity. Having battled my own physical and mental health all my life I specifically wanted to raise funds to support people struggling with their mental health, chronic illness, or disability. I send mental health packs and kindness kits out in the mail to bring kindness through the letterbox to people having a hard time. There are now over 4000 members around the world in Kindness Community. However, I really wanted to take what we’d achieved online out into the physical community to bring people together. So, with a little help from Kelly at Dartford Borough Council, The Kindness and Wellbeing Group was born in April 2022.

We can’t offer doctors or counsellors at the group but the most powerful thing we can offer is peer support. Everyone who comes to the group has faced challenges, this means that there is a high level of empathy and understanding in the group and crucially no judgement. One of our members, says, “I have been able to find a friendly ear to talk to which meant I wasn’t so anxious”. 100% of our members said they felt listened to, valued, and understood.

We have an abundance of mental health resources available in the group and members are free to use them. We love it when members then make up mental health resource packs ready to be posted out to others in need. We send these for free, paid for by our fundraising. To date we’ve sent well over 100 packs, all over the world. Members getting involved in making up the packs is an act of kindness and a great way to show gratitude and pay it forward to help someone else. This gives them a sense of purpose, fulfilment and shows them they are not alone.

Many of our members live alone and so coming to us may be the only meaningful face to face adult interaction they get each week. Cath said “I was at a very low ebb but I have now found lots of new friends and it’s the best thing that’s happened in a really long time…[If the group stopped] I would miss the club as I’d have nowhere to go”.

We offer to meet members outside on their first week, show them around and introduce them to everyone. We even have a thriving WhatsApp group for members which can be joined in advance to enable them to feel welcome before they even step foot in the building. 93% of our members report they have made new friends at the Kindness and Wellbeing Group. Tracey commented that the “group has the X factor, where it just seems to up people’s mood. It helps people to start living rather than just existing”.

We offer an abundance of activities including around 30 different crafts, games, puzzles, wellbeing resources and more in addition to the opportunity to join others for coffee and a natter. We give members the opportunity to be creative and learn new skills, both of which have positive effect on mood. Plus, being able to do an activity can help decrease the anxiety of coming into a new group. It can result in opening up conversation more naturally as there’s something to chat about and it’s non-confrontational. Meeting people, finding you have a hobby in common and sharing skills in that activity can help friendships to develop.

I can help with crafts but I’m not there to teach a class as an expert. This also means that I’m available and approachable throughout. Plus, there’s no anxiety for members about interrupting a taught class if they can’t make it for 9.30am.

It’s a relaxed environment where members can have just have fun. If there’s something they want to try that’s feasible to do in the group, the £3 fee is reinvested so we can get it. The group activities constantly evolve and develop to suit the members.

We also run a fundraising virtual craft market so members can even sell what they create if they wish. This runs a few times a year in a pop-up Facebook group and is open to everyone, even if they don’t attend the Kindness and Wellbeing group. I run the Craft Market voluntarily, so the £5 virtual stall fee goes directly to help people with their physical or mental health.

We’d love everyone reading this to join us online. If you’re able to, we’d love to invite you to join the Kindness and Wellbeing Group in person. It’s only £3 per week which includes a drink and all the crafts activities and support. You’ll find us in St Edmunds Church Café in Dartford between 9.30-11.30am every Tuesday. I look forward to welcoming you!

Laura Hope Cordell Founder of Kindness Community CIC

Website: www.kindness-community.com Join the global community here: www.facebook. com/groups/kindcommunity Kindness

The Shawshank Redemption

TUE 11 - SAT 15 APRIL, 2.30PM, 7.30PM

Win a pair of tickets to see The Shawshank Redemption at The Orchard Theatre.

The acclaimed stage version of the nation’s favourite movie. Despite protests of his innocence, Andy Dufresne is handed a double life sentence for the brutal murders of his wife and her lover. Incarcerated in the notorious Shawshank facility, he quickly learns that no one can survive alone.

Andy strikes up an unlikely friendship with the prison fixer Red, and things start to take a slight turn for the better. However, when Warden Stammas decides to bully Andy into subservience and exploit his talents for accountancy, a desperate plan is quietly hatched…

Based on Stephen King’s 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, this thrilling stage production examines desperation, injustice, friendship and hope behind the claustrophobic bars of a maximum-security facility. The 1984 feature film starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman and was nominated for seven Academy Awards.

Joe Absolom’s impressive TV career has barely seen him off our screens in 25 years: from Matthew Rose in EastEnders to Al Large in Doc Martin, Christopher Halliwell in A Confession and Andy Warren in The Bay. Ben Onwukwe boasts a 30-year stage career including leading roles with the RSC and Royal Court, as well as 11 years on TV as Recall McKenzie in London’s Burning and more recently, the role of Jackson Donckers in Professor T.

To be in with a chance of winning two tickets to this production just answer the following question.

What year did the film of the same name come out?

A: 1981

B: 1986

C: 1984

Email competition@dartfordliving.com by the 20th March to be in with a chance of winning.

RULES: 1. The will first

2.