Living Well in the Community (LWC) is a ten-session workshop within the HCL Program for people who want to set goals to support their overall quality of life and well-being.
Workshop participants can:
- Identify what is meaningful to them and then set quality of life goals around ways they want to make their lives better
- Make progress toward the goals they set by applying problem-solving skills and managing emotions like frustration and discouragement, feelings that can get in the way of reaching goals
- Discover tools and skills that can make goal achievement easier like communicating effectively and finding important resources
- Explore ways to improve their overall health by changing daily habits
- Practice self-advocacy and systems-advocacy to help them make changes that can support them and others in living well
Session Overviews
In the Living Well in the Community workshop, participants can explore and learn about:
Goal Setting
This session explains how working toward quality-of-life goals is meaningful and motivating. It provides guidelines for participants to identify what is important in their lives and to develop achievable goals in support of larger life changes.
Building Support
This session focuses on building supports to help solve problems when working toward a goal. It provides information on how to re-frame thoughts when problems are encountered and helps participants develop strategies so that problems do not get in the way of achieving their goals.
Healthy Reactions
This session focuses on building the skills that help facilitate a positive outlook when participants encounter problems. Participants learn to react to frustration by changing negative thoughts, feelings, and actions into more positive responses.
Staying on Course
Although participants learn to work on healthy reactions, no one can eliminate all feelings of frustration. Because of this, it is important to guard against becoming discouraged and losing direction. This session focuses on strategies to feel encouraged and hopeful, and provides resources for individuals who may be experiencing depression.
Healthy Communication
Individuals who exchange clear messages with service providers and others in their communities are more likely to get their needs met. This session focuses on the elements of clear communication and helps participants build the communication skills they need to achieve their goals.
Seeking Information
This session focuses on finding, evaluating, and using new information to help solve problems that interfere with achieving quality-of-life goals. Participants learn how and where to find information and what to do with it once they have it.
Eating Well
People who eat well have enough energy to participate in activities and reach their goals. This session covers healthy food choices, portions, and how even small dietary changes positively affect health and prevent and reduce secondary health problems.
Physical Activity
This session shows participants how to evaluate their current physical activity levels and develop plans to increase physical activity in support of improved health that will help them achieve their goals.
Advocacy
Self-advocacy and systems-advocacy require well developed skills in goal-setting, problem-solving, communication and information-seeking. This session pulls together the previous workshop sessions and helps participants use what they’ve learned to advocate for themselves and their communities.
Maintenance
Even an individual who is meeting their goals may slip back into old unhealthy behaviors. This session focuses on strategies that will help maintain the behavior changes a participant developed during the workshop as well as emphasizing the importance of staying connected with peers who support them in achieving their goals.