As you know these are still unprecedented and uncertain times, which will be having a significant impact on your staff. We know that the tools and techniques underpinning everything we do at Fresh Air Fridays support mental and emotional wellbeing, without exception. This is relevant to you and your staff both professionally and personally – particularly now. Whether your staff are showing signs of stress, anxiety, mental health issues, conflict or there are issues with engagement, poor morale and absence, we can help.

Practical and free support we offer:

• A great way to support your staff is to encourage them to attend our Breathing Spaces. Just what it says on the tin! 30 minutes where staff can stop and breathe. These regular live sessions share tools and ideas that allow participants to look after themselves mentally and emotionally. Free to everyone; sharing them with your staff will show them you care and that their wellbeing is on your mind. There are more practical tips on our Total Wellbeing pages.

• There is space to connect and get support from our Closed Facebook group – a safe, non-judgemental space where people can share and support each other to take care of their own wellbeing and with our Weekly emails – exploring our different themes – another support for everyone around their own wellbeing and making positive life changes.

As a business or organisation you will want to work with us if:

• you want to create a new workplace culture
• you are seeking more than just a tick box in your wellbeing strategy
• you aspire to be leaders in your field and want to be an aspirational employer
• you genuinely care about your staff and understand that happy healthy employees are more resilient, productive and loyal.

Who are Fresh Air Fridays?

We are expert in the field of human wellbeing. Founded in 2013, we have drawn together research and best practice from many sources to create programmes designed to help people find and live their life’s purpose in a healthy, happy way. We are highly experienced in providing a psychological safe space for participants to uncover and explore their own needs, beliefs and values. We differ from other wellbeing providers in that we walk with the people on our programmes, both literally and metaphorically, supporting them from our own authentic space. 

Here’s a snippet of the things people say about our programmes…

Feel Good, Work Well 12-week programme – the basics

The flagship programme – an innovative 12-session course takes your staff outside to a green space close to your workplace for a highly interactive and engaging experience. By learning simple and effective tools and techniques in an outdoor setting, our Feel Good, Work Well programme helps people grow in confidence and resilience. Your staff will learn how to look after themselves mentally and emotionally,  reducing stress and improving relationships both in the workplace and in their personal lives.

• 12-weekly structured sessions of 75 minutes each in green space
• 12 participants maximum per programme per facilitator

The programme provides the space and support for participants to unplug and create time for the things that matter to them and, at the same time, gives them tools and techniques to take care of their total well-being. The topics we cover during the 12 session programme directly address mental health and emotional resilience and also help to create productive habits. A highly trained facilitator supports the group, both on the session and with online correspondence in between sessions.

Sustainable Change

In our experience, the outcomes from ‘knowing’ what to do can be arbitrary. Real change comes with our programme running over 3 months enabling insights, learning and new tools to be absorbed in bite-sized chunks and being more easily integrated into the participants’ daily lives. A coaching approach means that individuals come up with the solutions that work for them and, as a result, those solutions are much more likely to be both implemented and effective. Participants gain a toolkit for life – an emphasis on building mental and emotional resilience enables participants to choose how to address challenges in their lives, including those pertaining to their physical wellbeing.

Working with people remotely

Working with our clients through lockdown has enabled us to demonstrate that we can provide the full programme benefits working with people remotely, using a blended approach.

How the blended approach works 

• Individual participants listen to an audio file which guides them through the session, while they walk in their local green space
• The group comes together with a facilitator for an online discussion once a week to deepen the exploration and be supported to make the changes they wish.  

All the content, tools and themes remain the same – the change is within the method of access and delivery. Additionally, it means that a programme could start with meeting face to face and then switch to the audio method if there is a need to do so. It also can work with a team coming together once a month, for example.

A participant’s view

“I just wanted to take the time to thank you for everything over the last 12 weeks. As I’m sure I’ve told you, I was in a really bad place mentally before the course started but I feel so much calmer and less anxious now. The skills you’ve taught me are so valuable and I put them to the test all the time.”

A client’s view

“We decided to pilot fresh air coaching for a number of reasons, including improving productivity, wellbeing and exposing willing volunteers to a range of tools and techniques that would help them in the workplace and in their personal life. The results were amazing, all the participants were able to provide hard evidence of how the course had made a difference and gave a presentation to our executive team on outcomes and impact. These are some of the most impressive results I have seen from a course in my career and I am confident that any business would benefit from this.”

Angela Lewis, Director of People Transformation Companies House

Wellbeing for Leaders

This is an in-depth, ten-session programme, specifically for leaders, run over a 12 month period.

Each session has time outdoors in green space or can be facilitated with a blended approach, as above. Leaders learn tools and techniques that enable them to think more clearly, build more effective teams and enhance their resilience. The programme builds over the course of the year, providing an opportunity for leaders to really hear themselves and their peers. Time out from the office in this way will encourage strategic vision and be hugely beneficial for the leaders themselves and for the teams they lead.

For more information about other ways we could support your organisation, visit our Products and Services page. For more on Fresh Air Fridays, please see the About page on the website. For our highly skilled facilitators, see Our Team and the directors, see Ruth Steggles and Rose Dixey. To speak with us about how we can help you, book a clarity call here.