Putting The ‘Well’ in The Wellness Tribe
The Wellness Tribe is a BAME-led organisation helping vulnerable individuals and families and those experiencing mental health issues.
The Wellness Tribe became a FareShare North East member during lockdown in 2020. As a service that provides a first point of contact for families and individuals at high risk, and those experiencing mental health issues, food provision during Covid-19 became vital for many people they worked with.
A BAME-led Organisation
The Wellness Tribe is a BAME-led organisation (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) founded by Maria Rodrigues and Gibril Coker. They are passionate about their mission to provide innovative, person-centred preventative and intervention support for disadvantaged and vulnerable people in their community, focussing on those facing barriers when seeking help due to their background, experiences and cultural differences.
“Our mental health prevention and intervention programme provides peer-to-peer support and 1-2-1 mentoring experience that breaks barriers, helps engagement and cements bridges to a healthy and fulfilling life. We have a 24 hour on-call mentor available to listen and guide if further support is needed. We strongly believe that mental health support is a way to promote inclusion and diversity”, Maria says.
A Rapidly Developing Charity
From small beginnings, The Wellness Tribe is developing. Now a CIC (Community Interest Company), they have a new venue in Newcastle city centre. The venue provides a drop-in facility, mental health support sessions and work with FareShare North East to develop a ‘Pantry’.
A Pantry is an excellent method to support people’s progress, reduce levels of dependency on food parcels, give individuals a greater choice for their food, and has proven to develop a more fulfilling experience to receive food support.
The Wellness Tribe offers partnerships with statutory and charitable organisations and businesses to help educate and raise awareness of mental health issues, especially within the BAME communities and to help empower people to advocate for their own wellbeing. They deliver exercises to help build a confident, competent and committed public mental health workforce. The fees are reinvested back into developing their charitable services, and the partnerships have an extensive outcome for all.
Social Change
Gibril describes himself as a ‘social change activist’. “I am passionate to add value in our future generations, especially in our communities and our continent”. His passion for improving the lives of others is irresistible, and likewise his passion for cooking. Gibril regularly promotes how the surplus food that FareShare North East provides can be used to make delicious and nutritious African recipes, which is amazing to see.
If you would like to find out more about the Wellness Tribe, visit their Facebook page.
Want to find out more about signing up for a FareShare North East Membership? Click here.
