Wellbeing packs

Wellbeing

Our education team, Chloe and Lucy, had the wonderful idea to create wellbeing packs for young women aged 11-21 across Leeds to try and prevent feelings of isolation and disconnection due to isolation and the various lockdowns. 

During the pandemic, it has been difficult to access schools and young people’s services, so we wanted to provide these wellbeing packs as a small ‘pick-me-up’ during these difficult times. The wellbeing packs include literature and physical items related to periods, wellbeing, self-care, body image, menstrual products, confidence, and mental health during the COVID-19 Pandemic. We received funding for these packs from Forum Central Leeds and NHS CCG to produce 200 of these packs. 

Many young women, girls, and people who menstruate may have experienced their first period during lockdown, or did not have easy access to resources or products during this time. As an organisation, we found that continuing to engage and connect with young women about menstruation through providing educational resources, with empowering language and accessible information beneficial. This helped to reduce feelings of isolation amongst already vulnerable women and girls. 

The packs aim to raise awareness around topics such as periods, reducing menstrual health related stigmas and taboos, whilst empowering women when we cannot connect with and support them through face to face engagement. 

We ran a social media campaign on our Instagram to design the tote bag for the wellbeing packs. This helped us to engage our audience and increase the participation of young people involved in Freedom4Girls decision making. Through this competition, we worked with freelance artist and Period Poverty Activist, Daisy Wakefield, who kindly created the tote bag design.

The packs include the following items:

  • A tote bag with period positive design, by Daisy Wakefield. 
  • TOTM Period Pads 
  • Daye Tampons 
  • Clipper Hot Chocolate
  • Ombar Chocolate 
  • Neal’s Yard Remedies Beauty Balm (moisturiser or face mask) and a Neil’s Yard Remedies Facial Oil
  • Drumstick Lolly 
  • A Self Care Planner from the Blurt Foundation 
  • 2x Pukka Tea Bags 
  • Wuka Wear Reusable Period Pad – these washable pads are a sustainable alternative to single use period products. 
  • A Stamped Postcard to send to a friend or family member to encourage recipients to connect with others when many people feel isolated
  • A Leeds Girls Can magazine 
  • A Reading List from @shemadeit_pack 
  • A Pen from Mind Mate 
  • Info and leaflets from support services across Leeds, such as Mindwell, Mind Mate, The MarketPlace, Safezone, Teen Connect, Barca, and the Blurt Foundation.

The Wellbeing Packs have been delivered to Barca, Getaway Girls, The MarketPlace and GIPSIL, services that support young women in various capacities across Leeds. We will be producing some more wellbeing packs for distribution very soon. 

We have asked the young people and organisations who have received the wellbeing packs to provide feedback on the packs, and the reusable products that they received, and we hope that the contents successfully signpost people to services that they might find useful across Leeds!