The Sunshine Model
Research tells us that relationships are central to everyone’s capacity to navigate hard times and grow the good life.
The Sunshine approach is centred in fostering relationships within family units
whilst connecting families with relationships and resources from the
wider community to elevate their good life.
What is a good life?
The ‘good life’ is a family’s vision for their ideal state of being. It is intentionally non-prescriptive and creates space for families to articulate this on their own terms rather than based on a service provider prescribed set of options.
We have found that families' visions for a good life centre around four key themes:
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Ability to meet basic needs
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Access to healing or therapeutic services
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Creating and strengthening connections
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A sense of purpose and ability to contribute something in the world.
Starting with the Good Life as the focal point has been well received by everyone who has encountered it. It has provided a hopeful vision anchored in the deepest parts of each participant.
It doesn't aim for completion. It aims for health over time, which adapts to changing circumstances. All other aspects of Sunshine connect back to this premise of The Good Life.
Principles
There are five key principles that guide and inspire the Sunshine model.
Centre the family and their relationships
We centre families, along with their people, pets, dreams and priorities, It supports them to become less tangled in the system and more connected to what matters most.
Work on things that matter
We work on things that matter, creating moments of belief that make bigger leaps toward the good life feel possible.
Relieve the mental load
Connect families with community and each other
We help families find the gifts they carry and create pathways for those gifts to strengthen relationships, deepen community connection and opportunities to contribute.
Grow the Good Life
A good life is different for every family but universal in its concept. It is made up of the people, rhythms, hopes and ways of being that matter most to us, and it keeps growing and changing over time.
We make life feel lighter through practical help, creating the breathing space families need to move toward their good life
The Sunshine Model
The Sunshine model features two key functions.
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Relational Coaching - Support from a dedicated Sunshine Coach, who works intensively with a small cohort of families, providing a suite of generalist supports, drawing in specialist support as needed.
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Community Building – Working in the community context to leverage and grow the place-based assets and opportunities available to families.
Sunshine Coaching
Sunshine Coaching is a relational, family-based model with a central focus of growing the good life. Coaching teams are empowered to centre and build trusting relationships with families as a mechanism to understand and enable the conditions for each family’s good life. Along the way they support each family to nurture their existing relationships and discover new community connections.
The coaching model follows six phases of coaching, typically over a 12- 18 month period depending on family's need. For Sunshine, family means everyone who lives in a household as they progress through the coaching journey.
Sunshine Community Building
Sunshine community building involves convening Sunshine families, local services, grass roots volunteer groups and interested community members to tackle local opportunities that families identify in their vision for a good life. The Community Builder creates opportunities for families to access resources, experiences, new connections and make genuine contribution as community members.