Nurturing and empowering communities through training of Psychological First Aiders (PFA)/ Community Counsellors and Professional Counsellors from among grassroots organizations
By Catherine Wanjohi (Life Bloom Services International - Kenya, IACD Organisational Member, Catherine also served on the IACD Board as Vice Chair and Trustee for the Sub-Saharan Africa Region)
Overall Synopsis
This project is part of celebrating 20 years of Life Bloom. This training is among other unique innovations such as professional coaching for communities, 6 steps training modules (transformative leadership, mental health, business skills, vocational skills, life skills, financial literacy), peer mentorship and partnership with the Judiciary to mark LBSI@20. This training and other upcoming aims to address the increasing prevalence of mental health issues within the community.
One sentence describing the project/initiative
In 2023, Life Bloom aimed at providing accessible mental health support to 42 individuals in the community through a network of trained community counsellors.
One sentence on what the community has achieved through the support of the project/initiative does for the community
The project/initiative has empowered the community to address mental health issues proactively, reducing stigma and improving overall well-being.
Background
The project was started in Naivasha of Nakuru County and Suswa in Narok County, Kenya in 2023.
Who was involved in the initial stages of the project?
Community volunteers, Life Bloom staff and Other like minded Civil Society Organizations. Life Bloom invested in leadership coaching of grassroot (community) leaders through a partnership with International Coaching Federation (ICF)- Ignite Project and independent coaches.
What led the community/others to develop the project?
Life Bloom co-developed approaches of addressing mental health needs and gaps through building the capacities of community members. Life Bloom created a curriculum based on needs assessment of trainees and community, put together by professionals in counselling.
In what ways (if any) did the IACD International Standards for Community Development help to shape and inform the project?
Life Bloom being a member of the IACD, aligns our work with IACD Standards for Community Development for effective community-based initiatives by utilizing principles such as participation, empowerment, sustainability and equity, which guided the project's design and implementation. This helped Life Bloom ensure that our project was inclusive and focused on long-term community development.
Which of the key themes from the IACD International Standards, does this case study material relate to
Theme 2: Engaging with communities- This initiative engaged the communities by co-creating partnership and building capacities of the communities to understand mental health issues that affect the larger community and developed relationships that provide the basis for working for positive change. Life Bloom utilizes the Asset Based Community-led Development (ABCD) Model, emphasizing asset-based community development that focuses on identifying and leveraging existing assets within a community to achieve positive change.
Theme 5: Learning for change - Through this initiative, Life Bloom facilitated the learning of 42 community members and other CSO practitioners working with them in addressing the gaps on mental health issues for change and development. The counsellors graduated on 2nd July 2024. Currently Life Bloom is implementing the first training ever for Children Counsellors for supporting other children. These counsellors are drawn from 3 Primary Schools, are themselves survivors of different forms of Modern Slavery or are at high risk.
Theme 6: Promoting diversity and inclusion - In this initiative of community counsellors training, Life Bloom promoted inclusion of People Living With Disabilities (visually impaired) thus recognizing diversity and supporting inclusion as core aspects of practice.
The Project
How did the project work?
The project involved a multi-faceted approach, community-led including:
i. Pre training assessment of potential trainees
ii. Recruitment and training
iii. Raising awareness about mental health issues
iv. Counselling sessions
v. Community development activities including integrating the graduates into community development initiatives
Who were the key community members and others involved?
Key community members involved in the project include:
i. Community residents
ii. Community leaders
iii. Community Health Promoters
iv. Other organizations working on mental health or community development issues.
What were the aims of the project?
The project aimed at reducing stigma, increasing access to counselling support if we had counsellors with at least basic skills who would offer the support needed at the community level and carry out referrals to organizations and professional practitioners for advanced support.
What were the stages of the project?
The project followed a typical community-based project cycle, involving needs assessment, planning, recruitment, outreach, implementation, monitoring, and sustainability planning. These stages ensured that the project was tailored to the community's needs and could provide long-term support for mental health issues.
What community development processes have been used in the project?
The project employed community development processes such as participation, empowerment, collaboration, capacity building and sustainability planning to ensure its effectiveness and long-term impact. These processes involved community members at all stages, empowered them to take project ownership.
What was the role of community development practitioners involved?
Community development practitioners involved in the project played a pivotal role in facilitating community engagement, providing technical assistance, building relationships and collaborating with other organizations and stakeholders in the community. This helped in ensuring the project's success and long-term sustainability.
Core values
What are the core community development values of the project?
Ownership: The community counsellors training covered core values in; empowerment of individuals economically, Inclusion through training visually impaired persons and Collaboration with other civil society organizations.
What primary assets are being harnessed?
This is the first training of its kind in the country, and will be replicated once best practices are evaluated and analyzed. Through the counselling training, we were able to harness individuals who are gatekeepers in the Naivasha and Suswa Communities. Furthermore, we have always been keen on creating meaningful partnerships; therefore, we also harnessed institutional assets by supporting the counsellors to acquire positions of internships in other community-based organizations like YMCA, and Kenya Red Cross.
What secondary values are being harnessed?
Being Community-led Asset Based the project harnessed community resilience through fostering the ability of communities to bounce back from setbacks and crises, through comprehensive mental health support. This was evidenced during the recent Mai Mahiu flooding disaster.
What did the project achieve in terms of community development?
Through mobilizing the available human resource, the project improved the ability of the community in handling mental health needs through offering counselling and identifying and referring cases that needed special attention.
What worked well
From the beginning of the project, we chose to train people who were in touch with challenges relating to mental health that were existing in the communities. We also encouraged the counsellors to conduct their counselling practice within community institutions like Disability Resource and Information Centre, Government offices, Red Cross Offices and YMCA Offices, fostering better community collaboration.
Why did these things work well?
These things worked well because we chose to train people with previous experience in community development. These people included community health volunteers, teachers and community leaders. This proved to be the best approach to improve mental health outcomes for the community since apart from offering mental health services, they were also equipped with knowledge and skills in advocating for proper mental health practices. So far, the community counselors have been able to offer counselling to more than 600 adults and children.
What are the strengths of the project?
The project has worked to improve the quality of life of community members where their mental health concerns are being addressed promptly. It has also led to economic development of the counsellors, since now they are able to earn a living through offering affordable counseling services.
Challenges
What challenges has the project faced or is it facing?
Some of the trainees were not able to complete the course fully. This poses a challenge to our original goal of reaching many community members with quality mental health services.
Another challenge that we experienced during the project life span was discrimination by professionally registered counsellors and psychologists from other organizations, disregarding the emergency interventions the community counsellors played during the flooding tragedy that swept away families and households on April 29th 2024. Discrimination showed up when the credibility of the community counsellors we trained got questioned.
How have these been addressed?
To address the above challenges, we offered extended classes for the trainees who did not originally complete in time, to allow them to be part of the solution when it comes to addressing mental health challenges in the community. We have also supported some of the community counsellors to get registered with the professional counseling body Kenya Counsellors and Psychologists Association (KCPA), to ensure that they are guided by the professional counselors code of ethics in their practice.
Learning and Future plans
What have been the key learning points from the project?
Community counsellors are crucial in bridging the gap of rise in mental health issues in our communities.
Community counsellors will enhance collaboration among community members, government facilities and Civil Society Organizations.
What are the future plans?
Our immediate plan is to train professionals in various fields like para-legal law and education. These professionals are crucial for the development of any community. For example in education, there has been a rise in cases of mental health issues in children. Therefore, to curb these occurrences, teachers need to be equipped with skills in counselling. Life Bloom has an ongoing training, first of its kind, for child counselors and mentors.
How will the learning from the experience be used to inform future plans?
It shall set the baseline for any future case studies that will show the effectiveness of training community counsellors to improve the mental well-being of our communities.
Contact information
i. Catherine Wanjohi: [email protected]
ii. Evelyne Muriithi: [email protected]
iii. Eunice Maina: [email protected]
Life Bloom CEO Catherine Wanjohi poses with Her Future Coalition CEO, our partner organization, while presenting a certificate to one of the visually impaired students.
The recently graduated community counselors celebrate during their graduation.