Helping Hands emerges from Coolgardie mental health project

A popular Coolgardie group which aimed to provide a social network for residents and raised funds for R U OK has rebranded to better help the community.

Helping Hands member Jess Higgins told the Kalgoorlie Miner after the Kms and Convos for R U OK Day Coolgardie launched in 2022, it had become obvious how much community members had benefited from making a conscious effort to “get out, catch up and check in with each other regularly”.

Ms Higgins said they had received interest from people asking when walks would start back up and when events would take place.

She said instead of holding events during one month of the year, the group decided to make it an ongoing project and commit to continuing the movement.

“We live in such a beautiful little town, I think it’s really important to remember that there’s always someone you can lean on, and reach out to and you don’t have to go through the hard times alone,” Ms Higgins said.

She said the first walk would take place at 2pm on June 18 and would serve as a catch up for the community and a chance to discuss new project ideas.

“We are committing to fortnightly walks every Sunday, whether it’s been three people, 20 people, we just want to stay committed and just be here to support our town and support each other,” Ms Higgins said.

Member Meghan Kent said the group was aiming to focus on community engagement and have fundraising events, with the money raised going “straight back into Coolgardie”.

“So as a team, we’re going to build a list of projects that we’re hoping to achieve for our community and we’ll do this with some community consultation, and just getting a feel for what people would think is important, and things that they’d like to see improved or changed, and how we could also contribute back to our already existing community groups,” she said.

Ms Kent said the group would continue to track how many kilometres they walked together as a group.

She said they already had a long list of goals they wanted to achieve, but their first project was to create a community food pantry.