#Take5Give5 for single parent families

06/05/2020

News

One Parent Families Scotland is asking supporters to #Take5Give5 for single parent families, by challenging themselves to try activities under the “five ways to wellbeing”.

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The five ways to wellbeing, developed by the New Economics Foundation and supported by the NHS and mental health organisations, encourage us to ‘connect’, ‘learn’, ‘be active’, ‘take notice’ and ‘give’. Faced with a global pandemic and social distancing measures, many of us are going through a tough time right now, which means it’s more important than ever to look after ourselves and each other.

That’s why our new fundraising campaign, which will help cover essential costs for families in crisis, is all about wellbeing and the steps we can all take to make ourselves feel a bit better.

The families we work with are telling us that they’re under a huge amount of stress, anxiety and financial strain. We want to be able to do everything we can to keep single parent families above water and ensure that parents are able to support their children to thrive during this difficult time. Your help means we can reach more families with this essential support.

Read more

See our donation appeal page for more information on how the funds will help single parents. 

Find more information on our wellbeing services.

Read the latest advice and information around the coronavirus and social distancing 

 

What we are asking you to do

 

The challenge

We’ve come up with a few suggestions of what you might do under each of the five ‘ways’ to boost your wellbeing and help single parent families at the same time. We hope you might be able to get creative and come up with your own ideas too.

Connect

This is about making connections with other people – because positive relationships and reaching out to other people is one of the most important things we can do to support our wellbeing.

You could ask people to sponsor you to do one of the following:

  • Chat-athon Using video call apps like Skype, Zoom, House Party or Whatsapp are great ways to keep in touch from a distance. Why not take things to the next level and set yourself a time limit to stay on the same video call with a rotating cast of family and friends – five hours, 15 hours, name your goal!
  • Games tournament: Connect with your family at home by going back to basics with a boardgame or quiz tournament. Or, include people outside your household by playing online games.
  • Pen pals: Write a letter a day to important people in your life, or to people you know are isolated in their homes.

Learn

This is about learning new things or building on existing skills – keeping your mind active, having a bit of fun and growing your confidence.

You could ask people to sponsor you to do one of the following:

  • Cooking masterclass: Learn five new recipes in the next two weeks (or whatever’s realistic for you) and post about your process and final product on social media so your friends can try it too.
  • Social Distancing Bake-Off: Agree on a cake recipe (or a few!) with friends and family and compete against each other from a distance. Share photos of your masterpiece and give each other a score.
  • Talent show: whether you’re learning an instrument or another talent, challenge yourself to learn something new and perform it in your living room. Get the whole family involved – and share it online if you’re brave enough!

Be active

Exercise is not only good for our physical health but our mental wellbeing too. We might be limited in what we can do and where we can go due to social distancing, but there’s still lots of ways to keep active and have fun.

You could ask people to sponsor you to do one of the following:

  • Couch to 5K: Download the app to help guide and motivate you on your 9-week journey towards being able to run 5K.
  • Sports Day: Get the whole family involved in a series of sport, fitness and novelty activities around the house, garden and your daily trip to the park. (Think three-legged, egg and spoon and sack race, 100m sprint, obstacle course… be inventive!)
  • Stair-climb challenge: Climb well-known mountains or buildings from home by walking up and down the stairs till you hit the right number of steps. Information here on the number of steps needed.

Take notice

Sometimes it’s hard to stop and take a moment to ourselves, but paying more attention to the present moment without distractions can be great for your mental wellbeing.

You could ask people to sponsor you to do one of the following:

  • Switch-off challenge: Set yourself a goal and commit to staying off social media, the news, or whatever else might be clogging up your brain – for five days, 15 days, whatever you can manage! Try using your phone’s screen time tracker to check back on how much time you saved when the challenge is over.
  • Sponsored silence: Can everyone in your house be silent for five hours? Longer? Agree a time-limit and enjoy the silence!
  • Mindfulness: If you’ve never thought about practising mindfulness or meditation, now could be the time to start. Challenge yourself to spend 10 minutes every day for the next two weeks (or longer) using one of the mindfulness videos available on YouTube, such as the Daily Calm.

Give

The positive feelings that come from doing something kind for other people can help improve your own sense of wellbeing.

You could ask people to sponsor you to do one of the following:

  • Acts of kindness: Do something kind for five neighbours. Deliver their groceries if they can’t get out themselves, bake them cookies, give them a call for a chat – whatever they need!
  • Get creative: Use creativity to cheer people up. Paint, draw or knit rainbows to put on display, make people smile by dancing in your front garden, or share a video of yourself doing something silly.
  • Donate: Skip the above and head straight to opfs.org.uk/donate to help single parent families in crisis.

We might be separated by physical distance, but we can be together in the ways that count. Help us to show single parents and their children that they’re not alone. #Take5Give5 for single parent families.

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