Discovery College: course catalogue

Clarity Walks

• Anyone
• Drop-in
• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

Switch off, relax and connect with others without distraction with our 1-2 hour guided walks in the Highlands. Our walks provide you with accountability to motivate you to walk regularly without digital devices to significantly improve your mental wellbeing. These are 1-2 hour digital detox walks that focus on connection rather than fitness so we have walks for all abilities, including one for those with mobility restrictions. Anyone is welcome on a Clarity Walk and we hope to see you soon.

Discovery Warm Space

• Anyone
• Drop-in
• Mental Health

Struggling to keep warm or charge your phone? Every day the Discovery College is open you can pop along, find a quiet place to sit and charge your phone or laptop, get a hot drink, read a book,  and find a judgement free place to just be.

LGBTQIA Community Connections

• Anyone
• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

Discovery College is offering safe spaces for people from the LGBTQIA community in Caithness to come together for friendship and peer support. There are a variety of opportunities to do this and if you could send your details to discoverycollege@centred.scot we will contact you to see what it is you are looking for.

Friendship Fridays

• Anyone
• Drop-in
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

A mixed gender group that offers a warm welcome, if your pals aren’t free to come along, please still come, we can meet you at the door and introduce you to folk. An instant friendship group for you. Music, games, bingo, pub quizzes, crafts, motorbike meet, and relaxed social time. A visit to the beach for a paddle & ice cream, come for a stroll, chat, and identify wildflowers. This is a self-directed group, which means you can ask for an activity, and we will try to provide it!  

Nature Photo Project

• Anyone
• Mental Health
• Online
• Wellbeing

Getting out into nature is recognised as a way of boosting our mental wellbeing. This online project will encourage you to get outside and take photos to share online in a closed group.  On the First Wednesday of every month there will be a chance to meet up via zoom to chat with each other and share the stories behind your photos of the beautiful and interesting places we live and visit.   No photography experience necessary and you will be able to use a smart phone or digital camera.

Connecting into Care – Digital Support Drop ins

• Anyone
• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

Our free service offers 1:1 support to any adults who are experiencing difficulties with their mental health and are struggling to get online and access digital devices. We also offer a device lending library, where you can borrow a device for an agreed amount of time, complete with free data. As part of our service, you will be supported to confidently use your device and utilise it to manage your wellbeing and overcome barriers to essential healthcare. Book onto our drop-in support sessions to have a chat with our Project Lead, Anya, or simply turn up to the Discovery College during opening hours.

Gardening for Wellness Project

• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

Would you like to love gardening? Do you like getting into the outdoors and sharing your knowledge or skills? This group is meeting weekly to transform some areas of unloved and untended ground around the Wellington Centre in Wick. Come along and roll up your sleeves and see if you can help bring life back to land that has been forgotten.

A Cup of Friendship

• Anyone
• Drop-in
• Mental Health
• Personal Development

Looking for a warm and welcoming space to meet new people? Join us for our wee Cup of Friendship sessions every fortnight on a Friday. Whether you come alone or with friends, we will be there to greet you and introduce you to the group. What to expect?

• Friendship
• Music, Games and Chat
• Coffee and Tea

Challenge Poverty Week

• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

The first Challenge Poverty Week was launched by the Poverty Alliance in 2013 to highlight the injustice of poverty in Scotland, and to show that collective action based on justice and compassion can create solutions. This week is an opportunity for us to raise our voices against poverty and unite with others in calling for a just and equal Scotland. For us at Centred and the Discovery College we know that poverty unfairly affects people living with poor mental health or addiction. In Highland, rurality can make the isolation and shame that comes with poverty worse.

Tech Tea Party

• Anyone
• Employability
• Mental Health
• Personal Development

Ever feel like your digital devices are working against you? Or that everyone but you are digital whizzes? We’re here to tell you that you’re not alone, and that you have the ability to overcome these challenges. In support of Get Online Week, join us for our first Tech Tea Party, where together, we’ll build resilience and sharpen our problem-solving skills over tea and biscuits.    

Blether by the Fire – Weekly

• Anyone
• Drop-in
• Mental Health
• Personal Development

These sessions are men only sessions. Getting together over food around an open fire is a way of offering a space for men to chat and get support from each other. Sharing favourite stories, experiences and laughter will offer a chance for men to unwind and enjoy the company of other men in a safe and stigma free environment.

Crafting Conversations

• Anyone
• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

Lots of people enjoy crafts and these weekly sessions offer an opportunity to get together through creative activities. Meet others and develop new skills in different crafts and have some fun. Materials will be provided and people will be able to take home their work.

Writing for Recovery

• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

Writing for Recovery is for anyone who has ever experienced some sort of distress, emotional difficulty or mental ill-health. The sessions will offer a safe, non judgemental and supportive space where participants can explore how to shape their own stories through poetry, fiction and lived experience writing. These fortnightly sessions will encourage us to think creatively about how we express our feelings and experiences. There will be laughter and an opportunity to get to know others through the writings we share.

Digital Winter Wellness Outreach

• Anyone
• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

Winter can often feel isolating, overwhelming, and lonely. However, did you know that managing life’s necessities, accessing essential health resources, and staying socially connected can all be done from inside your home? We are setting up our remote support service for those who are unable to access the Discovery College during the winter, but still require support on a consistent or one-off basis.

Art Online

• Anyone
• Art Group
• Drop-in
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

Art Online  is for anyone who has ever experienced some sort of distress, emotional difficulty or mental ill-health. The sessions will offer a safe, non-judgemental and supportive space where participants can explore how to shape their own stories through art.      

Introduction to Peer Support

• Anyone
• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

Interested in finding out more about how you can use your own lived experience to help others in their recovery journey? This session will give you the opportunity to hear from Peer Supporters and explore opportunities to develop your own peer support skills for volunteering, employment or to build new skills for life.

Peer to Peer Reunite

• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

This is a peer support session for anyone who has trained as a peer supporter with the Discovery College over the last two years.

Digital Winter Wellness

• Anyone
• Employability
• Mental Health
• Personal Development

Winter can often feel isolating, overwhelming, and lonely. However, did you know that managing life’s necessities, accessing essential health resources, and staying socially connected can all be done from inside your home? Through our Digital Winter Wellness support sessions, we will explore how digital devices can be used to reduce stress and improve mental wellbeing over the festive period.

Coping with Christmas

• Anyone
• Drop-in
• Mental Health

Are you worried about Christmas? Is it a difficult time for you? There are many people who find Christmas a struggle. Why not get ahead of it this year by joining out Coping with Christmas sessions? Come along and plan to have a less stressful and more enjoyable time. These sessions, which will run every week for four weeks up to Christmas will offer opportunities to hear from others about what works for them and get support around tricky issues, money, relationships, expectations, food. These sessions include a session after Christmas to reflect and share successes.

Coping with Christmas

• Anyone
• Drop-in
• Mental Health
• Online

Are you worried about Christmas? Is it a difficult time for you? There are many people who find Christmas a struggle. Why not get ahead of it this year by joining out Coping with Christmas sessions? Come along and plan to have a less stressful and more enjoyable time. Hear from others about what works for them and get support around tricky issues, money, relationships, expectations, food. These sessions include a session after Christmas to reflect and share successes.

Peer to Peer Training

• Anyone
• Mental Health
• Personal Development
• Wellbeing

Peer2Peer training is an opportunity for people with lived experience of mental health problems to develop peer support skills.  Peer support is generally understood to be a relationship of mutual support which provides an opportunity for people with lived experience to learn how to support others in their recovery journey.