Approved by
Alternatives Trust East London took part in Good Thinking's Small Grants Programme that ran across the London Borough of Newham in 2024. This case study provides an overview of the programme delivery and the outcomes achieved in improving mental health and wellbeing within the community.
Alternatives Trust East London is a small charity that empowers vulnerable families in the London Borough of Newham to transform their lives. The charity provides a range of services, including advocacy to address the causes of poverty, practical help, one-to-one parenting support, counselling and therapeutic support.
Alternatives Trust East London participated in Good Thinking’s Small Grants Programme that ran across Newham in 2024. The purpose of the programme was to train organisations to become Good Thinking ‘super users’ to raise awareness of the wide range of resources available to support better mental health and wellbeing within local communities across the borough.
Members of the Alternatives team were trained as Good Thinking ‘super users’ to build confidence in using the wide range of Good Thinking mental health and wellbeing resources with their clients. Activities included; a presentation to the wellbeing group on Good Thinking and the resources available, discussions with mums in the Family Hub (a weekly social event), and support during individual counselling sessions with clients who were struggling with stress, anxiety and sleeplessness.
These sessions introduced Alternatives’ clients to the range of free digital Good Thinking resources available to support and empower them to take charge of their own mental health. This includes free mental wellbeing apps, workbooks, ‘how-to’ guides, podcasts, blogs and toolkits. After showing clients the website and how to navigate it, they were encouraged to look at the resources in their own time too.
The Good Thinking resources enabled Alternatives’ clients to openly discuss any concerns they had about their mental health, encouraging them to look at mental health concerns from a different perspective and remove the stigma often associated with asking for help.
Overall, the sessions helped to:
The team introduced clients to the Good Thinking website with clients and encouraged them to look at the resources in more depth in their own time. Participants learned new techniques to deal with common mental health concerns, such as anxiety, stress and low mood.
The sessions helped to address various common misconceptions about mental health and gave Alternatives’ clients the confidence to talk openly about how they feel and to seek additional support.
By introducing Good Thinking in a supported way – for example, by explaining the symptoms of mental health conditions and completing the workbooks provided – clients felt empowered to take proactive steps to improve their own mental wellbeing.
The main challenge was lack of time. As the organisation’s counselling sessions are only 50 minutes once a week and clients had other matters they wanted to discuss, there were limitations on how much time could be devoted to explaining the benefits of Good Thinking.
The Alternatives team will continue to direct clients to the Good Thinking website during counselling sessions so they can explore a particular mental health challenge together and continue using the resources at home.