Background

In 2020 and 2021, the City of Melbourne, Australia, like many other cities, entered lockdown on multiple occasions.  Many small businesses failed to survive the lockdowns.  Activities of community groups relying on volunteers were largely suspended.  The decline in economic activity has significantly impacted the wellbeing of those in the small to medium business sector and community groups into 2022.  The Victorian Government identified a proactive approach to rebuilding wellbeing as a critical post-pandemic recovery strategy, commissioning The Wellbeing Lab to design and implement an evidence-based program.

Aims

Small businesses and community groups were invited to apply for a $15,000 grant to implement evidence-based wellbeing programs.  

Method

Utilising Oades et al.(2021) capability model for wellbeing literacy, representatives from the 73 organisations participated in group sessions that increased their understanding of the pillars of PERMAH (Seligman, 2012).  In parallel, representatives of each organisation were coached using an Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider & McQuaid, 2012) framework and a Learning Loop to design a community-led mental wellbeing project plan.  The Victorian Government released grants to organisations that presented approved projects and participated in all aspects of the program.

Results

Baseline data on participant wellbeing was gathered at the commencement of the program using the Workplace PERMAH Profiler (Butler & Kern, 2016).  Data was collected three months post-program from the majority of participants.  Qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of participants to identify the impact of their projects. 

Conclusion

In addition to describing the program, this presentation will examine the program's impact on participant wellbeing, the pillars of PERMAH that changed, and the impact of projects on the community.