About Us
Our Journey brings us here today
Our Vision and Mission
Holistic Mums is a volunteer led project designed and developed by mums who have lived experience of perinatal mental illness. Our services include peer support for mums suffering from perinatal mental illness, advice and support and education for parents in the early years.
Our vision is to improve the mental and physical health of mothers and children through the provision of evidence based early intervention programmes.
Our mission is to help mothers in our community and beyond to learn about and embrace the holistic lifestyle to improve their physical and mental wellbeing.
CNP Community Champions Project
It all began with an idea, supported by the Colin Early Intervention Initiative in 2016. To support the growth of local community champions to make a difference in children’s lives through Early Intervention Initiatives. Volunteer Champions were recruited, trained, and empowered to deliver their own community-led projects. Two women brought forward an idea that would make a difference to the lives of Mothers; to provide education on holistic approaches to health and wellbeing to new and expectant mums. They committed a lot of time to research, training, networking, and writing! They called their project, Colin Holistic Mums. To date, the project has supported over 60 women in the local community and has delivered over 200 training places for a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
The Community Innovators’ Project
In 2019, the Community Champions participated in the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, Community Innovators’ Programme. This programme utilised a design thinking and creative problem-solving approach to create solutions for social challenges. Through the process and engaging with service users, Colin Holistic Mums designed Holistic Mums: a blend of Education, Advocacy, and Peer Support to improve maternal health and wellbeing. With the support of a CFNI Seed Fund of £10,000, the project now has an established brand name, website, and a range of high-quality tools and resources including a reflective journal and a facilitators manual, so that ‘Holistic Mums’ can grow and make a difference in more mum’s lives in more communities across NI.
Lagmore Community Forum
Holistic Mums is currently managed and supported by Lagmore Community Forum. The Community Champions are Orla McCabe, Michelle Carew, Gemma McCaughley, Roisin Linden, and CNP Volunteer Development worker Emily Brough. LCF has supported Holistic Mums offering the use of its centre and facilities for delivery of the Holistic Wellbeing Programme and peer support group. Due to Covid, we are meeting remotely but hopefully, we will be back here soon for our meetings and enjoying in-person events, together with cups of tea and some lovely scones, and fresh fruit. Both Lagmore and Colin Neighbourhood Partnership continue to work together to support the growth and sustainability of Holistic Mums and support our amazing volunteers and service users.
“It is our vision that every community should have its own Holistic Mums group and we are working to achieve this goal. With this support and the commitment of our volunteers and community partners, we have and will continue to develop resources and opportunities for Holistic Mums to grow! ”