How to make a community flourish: Where There's a Will, charity based in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW is blazing a trail to show us all how we can effect change in our communities, starting with ourselves and positive psychology, then watching the ripple effect.

Jane Callinan grew up in the Upper Hunter and after 20 + years living away for university, travel and work; she returned home.

Early in her career, Jane was given opportunities to accelerate her leadership style, understand the value of self-awareness and the benefits of applying positive psychology. Jane then spent 10 years as a consultant delivering these concepts to organisations.

Jane volunteers as a Board Member for 'Upper Hunter Where there's a Will'; a local foundation that is striving to create a mentally fit community.

It is the first time that a whole community has been engaged in the implementation of positive education. Learning institutions from preschool to Year 12 have embraced positive education. A two-year program has been undertaken to equip teachers to incorporate positive education into their teaching.

One of the principles used is character strengths, everyone has these strengths and can use them to overcome life's challenges. Jane's top 5 character strengths are creativity, judgement, honesty, social intelligence and kindness. Jane's strengths easily explain the valuable input she brings to Where there's a Will. Creativity is about thinking of novel and productive ways to conceptualise and do things. Judgement is about examining things from all sides. Kindness underpins involvement in a charity without explanation.

Links and resources:

http://wellbeingwithpippa.com.au/