Connect

Individuals

• Scrap booking / sharing family histories/join a genealogy group
• Shared lunch/coffee with friends/family
• Gather some friends for film evenings – get people to share a film they like
• Call someone who you haven’t talked to in a long time
• Know your neighbours - invite your neighbour over for a coffee or share food with them
• Ask your workmates what you can do together to celebrate the MHAW theme
• Smile at a stranger – you may be surprised by the smile you get back!
• Walking the dog or walking with a baby or toddler. It’s amazing how much more likely people in the street will smile or stop to admire them!
• Feel the fear and do it anyway - try a public speaking group and make new friends and increase your knowledge on a diverse range of subjects.
• Connect with the whenua: do you have a place that recharges you? Make a plan to get there now and be there more often.
• Join your local craft, sport, hobby, or book club.
• Commit to talking to someone new everyday for a year, keep a journal of your encounters – write a story! 

Families

• “Talk don’t text” day in the family.
• Create a timetable of events – one activity a day
• Family history scrap booking – explore your roots.
• Find more opportunities for humour in the home – start a family joke collection.
• Whanau picnic, join a community picnic.
• Bring out the old board games you have – you may be surprised at how much fun they still are!
• Start up a family and friends mixed social sport team.
• Have a family gardening day – everyone gets to have a plot.
• Get the kids to cook the family meal.
• TV-free day - spend time sharing stories with each other, stories from your day, your own childhood etc.
• Family days where different members get to decide what happens, eg. grandparent day, kids day.
• Group booking of a leisure activity - get out into the land, go on a nature walk or visit a marae.
• Pot luck dinner – share/try dishes from different countries. 

Communities

• Be a volunteer for a day http://www.nzfvwo.org.nz/ a list of member volunteer organisations.
• Join or set up a neighbourhood group. http://www.ns.org.nz/index.html/Factsheets/Factsheets
• Get your council to commission artwork in a public space to inspire the theme and messages.
• Hold a poetry evening related to the theme.
• Organise a street BBQ.
• Make a one-off Zine, include local writers for contribution.
• Community centre open days.
• Organise community visioning day/workshop.
• Promote opportunities for communities to be part of advocacy, eg. healthy policies.
• Organise or attend cultural performances – in a mall or park.
• Take time to read your local newspaper or newsletter – find out what’s going on in your local area – then organise a group outing to support it.
• Get a group of people together to chalk messages on the footpaths about what the theme means to you 

Schools

• Shared lunch like pot luck dinner - all students bringing kai from different cultures.
• Get involved in your local community garden – or start one!
• Baby photo day, everyone bring photos of when you were babies in and the rest of the class has to guess who is who.
• Organise or promote ‘random acts of kindness’ days. 

Older people

• Become involved in seniors’ groups
• Baby photo competitions – guess who the baby is!
• Pot luck dinners – dishes from different countries
• Celebrate your life through stories and photos, share with others or support someone you know to create a scrapbook/memoir.
• Organise a ‘This Is Your Life’ show for an elder that you know.
• Get involved with youth and youth events – show that old can still be bold!
• Get your ‘glad rags’ on and take a group out dancing for the night
• Organise a sing along evening with old favourites.
• Visit a friend that you have not seen for a while - talk, talk, talk… 

Workplaces

• Have a shared or pot luck lunch to encourage workplace connections.
• Inter-floor mix - make friends with the people on other floors, share kai.
• Establish staff interest groups, e.g. coffee groups, book groups, walking groups.
• Top team competition – form teams and play fun games, eg. kapa haka for health
• Have a talk, implement a ‘no email’ day among staff. 

Working with Primary Health Care/Health Professionals

• Talk to local Primary Health Organisations about promoting MHAW / winning ways to wellbeing. Suggest a partnership.
• Work with Brief Intervention Teams to have MHAW resources available for clients etc.