Quoting Robert Aickman

'I believe that at the time of the Industrial and French revolutions mankind took a wrong turning. The beliefs that one day by the application of reason and the scientific method everything will be known and every problem and unhappiness solved seems to me to have led to a situation where we are either in imminent danger of destroying the whole  world either with a loud report or by insatiable consumption. Spirit is undefinable as everything that matters is undefinable but one can tell the person who has it from the person who has it not' 

A Quiet Place - developing the potential

Opportunity 

An opportunity has arisen to become involved with an SME that is a pioneer in the field of the well being agenda. The Founder, Penelope Moon, is looking for a partner/partners to develop the programmes she has created over the last 20 years both nationally and internationally.  With social impact being a priority for the government this is a chance to become involved with a well reputed ethical company that has integrity and mutuality at its heart. 

Timing

AQP is a private limited company wholly owned and run by Penelope Moon. Mainly based in the North West it is ripe for rolling out nationally and internationally through the development of social interest franchises or associates who would be able to take advantage of their existing local networks.

There are many people at the moment who are looking to develop businesses who have been made redundant from the public sector. Government policy is encouraging business loans for franchises because statistical reviews indicate a lower risk to the investor.

Application

The product has been deliberately designed to be applicable to all ages and abilities and is therefore equally applicable to:

1. Education
2. Social care, children and adults, older and disabled people
3. Business well being and health in the workplace programme

Some of these areas have not been touched as yet. They could, therefore, be developed as separate products or as part of the whole

Contact:  penny@aquietplace.co.uk

A Quiet Place as a Healing Space

I’ve been reading a book by Esther M Steinberg on Healing Spaces and relating it to the work of AQP. When AQP talks to clients about creating an environment we try to convey the importance of the space being special and healing to those who visit it and those who work in it. AQP develops the space so that it appeals to all the senses and thereby lends itself to promoting a feeling of well being and calm.

I can remember a time when the organisation I worked for re-located to another building. My desk (AKA my personal space) went from overlooking a tree lined car park to facing a blank wall, no external natural light and next to a drinks machine that constantly buzzed and whirred. I was so miserable! I felt as if the organisation had ceased to care about me and my colleagues. I know for sure my work suffered as a result and probably my health.

Sternberg ends Healing Spaces by considering how data on the healing effects of place might better inform the design of public buildings such as hospitals. She quotes the World Health Organization's definition of health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well‐being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" and asserts that the "built environment affects all these aspects of health." She explains that all sorts of national health and architectural design organisations, such as The Center for Health Design in California, are exploring connections between place and health.

I couldn’t agree with her more……………………. Lets start to do it in Liverpool with the advent of the new Royal Liverpool and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

What is meant by Inner Landscapes?

By Inner Landscapes I refer to the world of the imagination.

This world will be stronger in some who have a vivid imagination than others. For everyone it will be characterised by circumstances and experiences that have occurred in their life, and in particular those with a high emotional charge.

An emotional charge can be positive or negative. Where experiences have given rise to strong memories, for example where something particularly dreadful has happened and the visual memory can flash back very strongly when a stimulus, conscious or unconscious occurs these extreme cases can be called post traumatic stress disorder. The whole experience is highlighted. At the positive end it could be a concert or a highly emotionally charged moment e.g., the birth of a baby or wedding day.

All our experiences describe our inner landscape and it is a useful metaphor to look back from the present moment and see the mountains and valleys through which you have passed in order to get to this moment in time.

We all love to see dramatic landscapes and this may reframe the past for some people

A Quiet Place – finding funds for improvement

AQP, like most organisations in this time of recession, realise that it's becoming more and more difficult for clients to offer any services that aren't directly funded or paid for at point of delivery, even though they offer evidence of improvement in learning, behaviour and attendance for children and young people. We want to be able to help clients think more creatively about this - so that lack of funding to set up AQP ceases to be a barrier. AQP now has access to a new funding model which uses the rules which govern corporate tax to support the development of AQP Environment. It works by linking organisations within a geographical locality, with a "sponsor" corporate company, brokered by AQP, which helps to fund the capital aspects of the AQP environment. The sponsoring company benefits by knowing the support it is giving is going directly to the families of employees, and the organisation benefitting can evidence real results with children and young people who may well be future employees. AQP now want to see if this way of working can be applied to developing Social Impact Bonds to benefit a wider community.