Welcome to episode 214 with Cormac Russell, who is an author and social explorer. He is the Founding Director of Nurture Development and a member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute. Cormac has spent more than 20 years working all over the world training communities and professional organisations in Asset-Based Community Development and other strengths-based approaches. In this episode I chat to Cormac about his strengths based approach to community, the four modes of change and how these things impact and support good mental health. We chat about what 'helping' someone really means, the downsides to the traditional approach to supporting people who are struggling and what we can do differently as communities when we take an asset based approach and focus on what's strong instead of what's wrong. And we chat about the role of storytelling, how structural change happens at the speed of trust and why 'we don't have a health problem, we have a village problem'. It was inspiring to chat to Cormac and this is a powerful conversation about what is possible when communities come together and how this approach can change how we think and feel about mental health and mental illness. https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/  https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/we-dont-have-a-health-problem-we-have-a-village-problem8259.pdf You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!