The Cowboys will soon be delivering the key messages of gratitude, empathy, and mindfulness to pre-school children in our local community thanks to funding from the Whitsunday Suicide Prevention Network (WSPN), which is bringing The Resilience Project’s (TRP) Early Years Program to local childcare centres.
With the aim of introducing positive mental health strategies at a key point in a child’s emotional development, the program teaches both educators and families how to live a happier life and instil an attitude of gratitude in everyday living.
This is achieved by involving parents and carers with the Early Years Family Journal to raise awareness of practical strategies to build resilience for themselves as parents and within their children.
The Journal includes a space for children to capture reflections of their learning as well as ways for families to connect and share activities together.
WSPN believe that the TRP Early Learning Program will greatly assist young children and their parents in our region to cope better with the current challenging times resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic.
“Research shows that if you practice the three principles of gratitude, empathy and mindfulness your mental health improves, you feel happier and your ability to cope in challenging times improves,” said WSPN Treasure Paul Burke.
This view is also supported by recent university research commissioned by TRP.
The research looked at the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of 80,000 young people who had used the TRP resources and 80,000 young people who hadn’t.
It found that the young people who had used TRP resources managed to maintain their mental health throughout the pandemic while the other group had experienced significant mental health issues.
The delivery of the Early Years Program in the Whitsundays will be rolled out initially to two regional early learning centres and is expected to commence in term 2, 2022.
