Pursuit Programmes | Health & Wellbeing

The class is amazing to be in, I feel more comfortable in myself, it gives me a goal and aspiration to achieve something."

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Through Aspire people have gained self-confidence and discovered strengths that have played a major role in their recovery and wellbeing.

We know that physical activities can have a positive impact on mental wellbeing. We have been moving towards providing a holistic service which can help bring about positive changes.

By developing our pursuit programmes we want to support our service users in their recovery, in imaginative and creative ways, responding to what they say is helpful to them.

Our Aspire project is a great example. This Tae Kwon Do martial arts project provides service users with the opportunity to engage in an activity that may in the past have be viewed as too risky. In fact the opposite is true. Since it was launched in April 2008, Aspire, which is run in partnership with the Norwich Academy of Martial Arts, has helped many people achieve outcomes that they are really proud of. The service is currently funded through donations and personal budgets.

The project is not about teaching people how to fight; it is about promoting self-discipline and respect through learning an art form that requires concentration and commitment.

Download a service sheet that contains the information on this page.

Joe, a 33 year old man with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia, was referred to ASPIRE via the Working Neighbourhoods Fund Project, which Julian Support was one of the provider organisations for, in January 2010. When he was first referred he had low self- esteem, poor eye contact and was hardly leaving his flat.