Personal Growth & Wellness is the lens through which all our work is designed, delivered and evaluated. It reflects our belief that individuals and communities thrive not when their deficits are managed but when their strengths are recognised, supported and nourished.

We co-developed the framework in 2017, inspired by Sir Harry Burns’ TEDx talk: “What Causes Wellness”. We rejected the damaging language often used to describe individuals and communities like ours, words like “deprived” or “hard to reach”. These narratives imply passivity or failure, instead, we focus on assets, skills, dreams, strengths and resilience that people already have, and we nurture them.

Our definition of personal growth was developed by directors, staff and volunteers:

“Personal growth is lifelong journey of self-nurturing and aspirations to be a better person for yourself, your loved ones and your community.  Personal growth develops your self-awareness, purpose and meaning, optimism, resilience and sense of responsibility.  Personal growth builds the foundations of wellness”

We identified 9 indicators of wellness which guide our work and help us understand individual and collective development:

• Self-esteem
• Sense of control
• Optimism
• Occupation (meaningful use of time)
• Outgoing (confidence in social spaces)
• Flourishing
• Supported
• Responsibility
• Resilience

As an evaluation tool, PG&W is flexible, values-based and reflects the real experiences of the people we work with.