Yarra Valley, Victoria has three recreation facilities.  Belgravia Leisure operates the facilities on behalf of Yarra Ranges Council. Collaborating with Belgravia Foundation, these facilities have created local partnerships, submitted grants and tirelessly fundraised money to support local community members experiencing adversity to connect to leisure, and gain an opportunity for improvement in health and happiness.

This has occurred over the course of three years, led by Belgravia Leisure’s local community engagement coordinator Aleksei Bondarenko-Edwards, with outstanding support by the Belgravia Leisure teams operating and leading facilities. Aleksei said of the effort: ‘None of this would be possible without our strong partnerships with local agencies, a solid understanding of both our local community and the systems that are available to support them and the Belgravia Foundation of course’.

Move For Mind is a series of programs created by Belgravia Foundation to support an increased understanding and experience of the body mind connection, specifically how moving our bodies supports positive mental health and well-being. Collaboration began this year with “All the Feels” founder Bec Filliponi, who now works with the foundation to help families experiencing difficulties using art as a ‘therapy’ medium. Bec is an Accredited Mental Health Social worker, with a degree in Psychology, Social Work and a Graduate Certificate in Developmental Trauma. Bec has been supporting children, young people and adults in Melbourne's eastern suburbs since 2011 in an employed capacity, and since 1999 in a volunteer capacity. Bec specialises in trauma, mental health, parenting, emotional connection, somatic therapies and Animal Assisted Psychotherapy with her Labradoodle Tilly.  Bec created a series of therapeutic group programs called “All The Feels”. This program supports children, young people, adults and parents to increase their ability to understand and regulate their emotions, navigate relationships safely and explore their positive self-worth. Mediums for this include therapeutic art projects, workbook journals, colouring pages (created by local artists) to deepen the processing of therapeutic content and partnering with personal trainers and coaches to support increased understanding and learnt experience of the mind body connection.

The program supports Grade 6 students from multiple schools in the Upper Yarra to come together once a week for 8 weeks at the Yarra Centre. In this program students split into 2 groups and alternate each week between learning about how moving their bodies increases their well-being and positive mental health, with a qualified children's coach. The other half do a program with Bec, exploring stress, trauma, emotions and regulation, friendships, bullying, body safety, safe positive boundaries, family Violence, children's rights, mindfulness and wellness.

Feedback participants from this program in 2020 include some of the following:

“I didn't realise how much impact actively tuning into my feelings would be. I didn't realise how hard it would be for me to tune into anger or pride, for instance. It's been an interesting challenge and opportunity for growth.”

“All the Feels” is a fantastic program and the sessions my child did were really beneficial for both of us. The videos were clear, warm and inclusive. It was a fantastic forum for us to talk deeply about stuff going on in her life and gave us both great tools for dealing with many things.”

“Your program is excellent Bec- keep doing what you are doing - it is so helpful to be providing families with specific strategies around emotional regulation.”

This program has been run with great success in 2020 and Belgravia Foundation are partnering with Bec Filliponi to run the program again in 2021. In Term 1 this program was run in person but due to COVID-19 the program was transformed into an online program and supported over 80 children, young people and adults, ranging from 4 – 82 years.

Some of our current projects in collaboration with Bec Filliponi are:

“All The Feels” Therapeutic Art Parenting Program” focus on supporting parents to increase their ability to regulate their emotions during times of increased stress, navigate parent/child conflict, understand the neurobiological impacts on their parenting and then learn how to teach these to their own children. Due to COVID-19 this program was run via Zoom and included 4 weekly sessions with art projects, workbook activities and  colouring, all created to deepen the processing and understanding of the therapeutic content. This was a partnership between Bec Filliponi (who wrote and facilitated the project), Belgravia Foundation (Auspicer) and Yarra Ranges Council (funded the project through Small Grants).

Feedback from this program included the following:

“Thanks so much for the opportunity to be part of this program. It came at a time I really needed it. I now have quite a few coping skills up my sleeve which will and have already come in very handy. You have created a great service which is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.”

Mental Health First Aid training has been provided at subsidised rates to key community groups, enabling them in turn to apply the important training to support community members, and in conjunction with “All The Feels”, art therapy programs have been provided to parents as well as young people.

There are a number of projects that Belgravia Foundation and Bec are currently partnering on as well as many other plans to support the community in the future.

- All The Feels Parenting Program 2020

- All The Feels Children’s art Program 2021

- Move for Mind Primary 2020 and 2021

A Yarra Ranges Arts and Heritage grant application has been made for “All The Feels” Therapeutic Art Program for Children and young people.

A Maroondah Arts and Heritage grant application was made for “All The Feels” Therapeutic Art Program for Children, young people and adults in the Maroondah area, however this application was not successful.

Looking for simple ways to manage your own stress and your children's big feelings?

Bec Filliponi - Therapeutic Services takes parents through a range of simple, practical techniques to help adults and children regulate and manage emotions. You can now watch the recorded webinar.

"The most important indicator of positive mental health in a child is a safe and secure adult. By learning how to stay calm and regulated as a parent, you and your child can connect more meaningfully and create a strong attachment that will support them to get through the tough stuff - even a global pandemic!" - Bec Filliponi.