Inspire Others is an innovative, creative project between people living with neurological injury (brain and spinal injury) and professionals working alongside:
We all work with clients who have managed to build meaningful lives in the aftermath of life-changing injuries. We wanted to find a way to help clients celebrate these courageous, purposeful, determined steps. Project work is also a highly creative, engaging and effective rehabilitation focus. The idea evolved to build a website from scratch to share client personal stories towards doing what matters after injury. The stories can take the preferred and accessible form for the individual: written, pictorial or video. We are using skills across individuals to support one another, for example, one client with video editing skills is helping to edit a video another client has made sharing their challenges after brain injury.
Our hope is that other people living with neurological injuries come across these stories, feel hope and are inspired to move towards what matters to them in their lives.
We would like to create a sense of community, encouragement and support using social media so that people feel connected and jointly motivated to lead vital lives in the presence of neurological injuries.
We have secured sponsorship for the building of the webpage from Neuro ProActive and Leigh Day solicitors. Charlotte Brown at CEB Creative has been commissioned to build the website with us. We will make it a collaborative build with all clients and professionals involved in decision making and the creative ongoing development of the site.
As professionals we have used a helpful perspective-taking tool, the ACT Matrix (Kevin Polk) to help clarify:
The last point has given us steps to take towards building the website. This tool helps us engage in ‘psychological flexibility.’ ‘Psychological flexibility’ is the central process of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and is defined as: “the ability to contact the present moment more fully as a conscious human being and to change, or persist in, behaviour when doing so serves valued ends” (Biglan, Hayes, & Pistorello, 2008). In other words, it helps us have the freedom to choose to behave and take steps linked to what is important to us about the project rather than being pushed around/sidetracked by normal human experience, such as thoughts, “we’ll never get this done,” “this is too difficult” and feelings such as anxiety and frustration.
Behind the ACT Matrix, Prosocial also influences our collaborative effort. The ACT Matrix focuses on Core Design Principle 1 of Prosocial, which is creating a Shared Vision and Purpose.
The beautiful image for the Inspire Others vision was taken by Marc-Olivier Jodoin.