Community Partnerships: Southwater Community Church

As part of their Soul Space initiative, they endeavour to provide opportunities that enable all people to reconnect with life in all its fullness by offering opportunities to experience the rhythms of life and love and rest and fun! They achieve this through their Soul Space tent at community events in Horsham or Southwater, running courses that promote well-being and harmony for individuals or families, or offering a sympathetic listening ear through trained listeners.

The key topics reported by attendees from having attended the Happiness Course were:

• The importance of forgiveness to our happiness.
• Range of useful strategies and fellowship.
• That 40% of personal happiness is under our control.
• There is a scientific basis to happiness.
• There are different levels of happiness and a balance between pleasure/engagement
• and meaning.
• To evaluate where I am.

Southwater Community Church Happiness Course is just one such example, that supports health and care services by offering local people ways of looking after their mental and emotional wellbeing and strengthening their resilience. Southwater Community Church Happiness Courses will be running again during 2019.

Happiness attendee’s voices help Healthwatch to influence the ongoing development of Health and Social Care in our County. And forms part of the insight and evidence that Healthwatch gather to identify common themes around what works and doesn’t work for local people.