Action for Happiness - Key Achievements
20 Dec 2013 | Action for Happiness
Since its launch in April 2011, Action for Happiness has focused
on four main activities:
- BUILDING THE MOVEMENT: creating a global
community of like-minded people who are committed to taking action
for a happier and more caring society.
- ENGAGING A WIDE AUDIENCE: reaching out to a
wide range of people to show them why happiness and wellbeing
really matter and what more can be done.
- PROVIDING PRACTICAL HELP: sharing practical
resources that people can use to increase happiness both for
themselves and others, all based on the latest empirical
research.
- TRANSFORMING ORGANISATIONS: helping
organisations enhance the wellbeing and resilience of their people,
leading to greater happiness and improved productivity.
This article summarises our key achievements to date in each of
these areas.
1. BUILDING THE MOVEMENT
- Members and supporters: We have signed up
32,000 members from over 140 countries, asking each to make a
personal pledge to "create more happiness and less unhappiness in
the world". We have also built a wider online community of over
120,000 supporters and a network of 20 local Action for
Happiness groups. For example, our Brighton group has over 300 active members and
holds regular meetings and events.
- The Action for Happiness Course: We have
created an 8-week course to
explore what matters for a happy and meaningful life. It is
designed to be run by our members in their local communities.
Participants on the pilot course gave it an average score of 4.9
out of 5 and we measured significant increases both in their own
wellbeing and also in their pro-social attitudes. Hundreds of our
members now plan to run the course locally.
- Pushing for change: We have been actively
involved in significant public policy activities, including the
United Nations' Happiness and Wellbeing: A New Economic
Paradigm process and the UK Government's Measuring National Wellbeing programme.
"The course has really had a profoundly positive impact on my
life; it has been so incredible to be surrounded by such
interesting people who share my passion for making the world a
happier place, and the ideas shared by the group have honestly
inspired me no end."
~ Catherine (Participant who took part in the Action for
Happiness course)
2. ENGAGING A WIDE AUDIENCE
- Our website: Since its launch our website www.actionforhappiness.org has had a total of 3
million hits and is currently averaging over 45,000 visits per
month.
- Media coverage: We have generated significant
global media coverage with hundreds of articles and appearances,
including: ABC, Adevărul, BBC News, Channel 4 News, Channel 5 News,
City Wire, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Star, Die Zeit, El
Confidencial, Gulf News, Herald Scotland, Herald Sun, London
Evening Standard, Financial Times, Guardian, Huffington Post, Il
Sole 24 Ore, Independent, International Herald Tribune, Indian
Express, 'i' paper, ITV News, Jerusalem Post, Mail Tribune,
Management Today, Malaysia Star, Marie Claire, Men's Health, Metro,
Network 10, New York Times, Press Association, PSFK, Psychologies,
Psychology Today, Reuters, România Liberă, Scotsman, Sunday Times,
Sydney Morning Herald, Telegraph, Times, USA Today and Voice of
Russia.
- Public events: We have put on 30 events attended by over 7,000 people, with
inspiring speakers including Matthieu Ricard, Jon Kabat Zinn, Ruby Wax, Daniel Goleman, Thich Nhat Hanh, Karen Armstrong, Adam Grant, Nic Marks, Anthony Seldon, Tony Hawks, Mary Gordon, Oliver Burkeman, Leo Bormans and many more.
Videos of our events have had over 300,000 views online from all
around the world. We have also presented at over 70 third-party
events attended by over 11,000 people in various locations
including Australia, Bulgaria, Chile, Italy, Netherlands, Romania,
United Kingdom and United States.
- Global Campaign: We led a global campaign to
celebrate the first UN international day of happiness on 20 March
2013 www.dayofhappiness.net. We built a partnership
of 40 organisations to promote the day, coordinated a range of
events and generated significant global media coverage. The
campaign had an estimated social media reach of over 3.5m people
and was "trending" on Twitter for a number of hours during the
day.
"Your event had a dramatic positive effect on my sister who has
been suffering from severe depression for three years. Something
seemed to click for her and she has been a different woman ever
since."
~ Miranda (Person who attended one of our public events with her
sister)
3. PROVIDING PRACTICAL HELP
- Ten Keys to Happier Living: Our evidence-based
Ten Keys to Happier
Living framework has now been used in hundreds of organisations
and communities around the world, including businesses, schools and
third-sector organisations. Over 30,000 postcards of
the Ten Keys have been distributed by our members all over the
world and our new guidebook to the Ten Keys has had
over 40,000 downloads/views in just a few months.
- Happier Living course: We developed a
2-session "Practical Ideas For Happier Living" course in
partnership with a Local Authority/NHS Public Health team in the
UK. We have piloted the course for different groups, including
students, young parents and people living with mental health
challenges. Surveys before and after the course show that it has a
significant positive impact on the mental wellbeing of
participants.
- Weekly newspaper: We have created an online weekly newspaper to
share the latest news, ideas and research relating to happiness and
wellbeing. afhnews.org
- 'Do Happiness' programme: We have launched a
6-week Do
Happiness programme to help people establish daily habits to
increase happiness for themselves and others. Participants complete
a survey about their habits and receive personalised daily "Do"
messages (actions) via text message and email. dsd.me/dohappiness
"Thank you so much for making your resources available! This
subject matter is quite different to what has previously been
delivered in welfare lessons, and I was really grateful to be able
to introduce positive psychology principles at my school."
~ Amy (High school teacher in Australia)
4. TRANSFORMING ORGANISATIONS
- Wellbeing and Resilience programme: We have
created a unique, evidence-based training programme called Doing Well From The Inside
Out. It aims to increase wellbeing and resilience in
organisations and was originally developed for managers in BT. When
we piloted the programme,100% of participants said it was of value
to them and100% said they would recommend it to others.
Psychological measures taken before and after the programme also
showed strong increases in average levels of wellbeing.
- Reaching more organisations: We have now
provided training, advice and talks for 20 organisations, including
Accenture, Antofagasta, Berkeley Partnership, Breakthrough Breast
Cancer, BT, CMS Cameron McKenna, Flamingo International, Goldman
Sachs, Hewlett Packard, Just Giving, Lancashire Police, Marks &
Spencer, National Health Service, North West Employers, Nuffield
Health, ORC International, Roche, Royal Borough of Kingston,
Swanswell and vInspired.
"This course was the best I have attended in 35 years!"
~ Paul (Manager who completed our Doing Well from the Inside Out
programme)
WHAT'S NEXT?
1. BUILDING THE MOVEMENT
2. ENGAGING A WIDE AUDIENCE
- Even bigger campaign for UN Day of
Happiness 2014
- Plus on-going events, online content and media coverage
3. PROVIDING PRACTICAL HELP
- Further roll-out of Do Happiness programme
- Plus on-going promotion of our other resources and courses
4. TRANSFORMING ORGANISATIONS
- Extend our team to support more organisations
- Plus on-going delivery of training, advice and
talks