About Us
It is a collaborative platform
where educators earn care, support, and financial benefits by contributing to research, policy, and practice.
Central to WEF is the Better than Cure preventive clinics which will provide assurance of the reduction of likely future health challenges and will likely refer members to remedial clinics, which include preventive, emphasizing proactive, preventive approaches to health and wellbeing.
Welfare of Educators
Improving the physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing of educators through preventive strategies.
In order to reduce the likelihood of challenging physical, psychological or financial issues amongst educators. As well as, to enhance financial health through support systems and resources.
This collaborative includes professional educators in primary, secondary, and tertiary education, as well as parents, administrators and others involved in educational roles.
Our History
Well Educators is mostly funded by a Swiss charitable association.
At the time, this came as something of a surprise to them.
In 2022, they sought to fund the creation of a lifelong series of preventive mental health programmes, collectively called ‘Choosing Points’, designed to provide resources to anyone and everyone, from the second trimester of their existence, through babyhood, childhood, adolescence and onward.
They commissioned the Irish psychotherapist Tadhg Ó Séaghdha (known as ‘Tadhg the SADman’ as he has specialised in preventing and treating excess stress, anxiety and depression for many years) to put together a plan.
Tadhg soon realised that the advice of teachers would be vital to the success of the charity’s massive mission to alleviate the post-COVID avalanche of anxiety and depression in general, and self-harming and suicide amongst teenage children and young adults in particular. So he met teachers. And a strange thing happened. And that strange thing surprised him.
Because Tadhg thought he knew about teachers. In his clinical practices, and those he was invited to guest in, in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, and in various parts of India, Switzerland and Sweden, he had encountered many educators – teachers, administrators and policy-makers – but only now did the scale of a problem become obvious to him. Clearly, many, many more people working in educating children, adolescents and adults were close to, or actually in, crisis than he, or anyone he knew, had imagined. And no-one seemed to be addressing that fact successfully.
Sometimes, in some places, no-one seemed to be addressing that fact at all.
Talking with those educators, Tadhg found dedication, Tadhg found determination. But Tadhg also found exhaustion, frustration and, too often, despair. It was worse in some places than others, but it was prevalent everywhere that he went. As soon as he scratched the surface, wherever he was, the critical human responsibility of educating those yet to know, with the knowledge and wisdom of others, was under threat. Serious threat.
Tadhg reported back to the Swiss charitable association. They explained that they had earmarked all of their distributable funds towards reducing the unhappiness, amongst millions of people around the world, that was the result of an almost universal lack of training and understanding about how to deal with our emotions. That was Choosing Points. Not some rescue mission for teachers. They mentioned that he probably knew that as he was the person who they’d engaged to strategise that exact notion. Choosing Points.
They continued, explaining that there was an epidemic of young, middle-aged and old people overwhelmed by their emotions, and they were passionately determined to do something about it.
How could they possibly take funds from their mission, they asked him, and divert it to teachers, support staff and accompanying admin people?
Tadhg agreed with them.
We won’t bore you with the details. We are sure that you can envisage a scenario where a cunning Irish person draws a picture of how dreadful it would be for a bunch of teachers, caretakers, admin staff and support team members to take precedence over a group of determined, progressive Swiss people’s world-changing plan to train children and young adults to cope with their emotions and not be enslaved to them. I’m sure you can imagine the going and the froing and the edginess in the air. To help, I’ll mention that it was winter, but it wasn’t snowing, although the sky was dirty steely and looked as if it could drop its heavy, virgin whiteness at any moment.
And so, asked Tadhg the SADman, who will orchestrate the Choosing Points plan?
Vision and Mission
To create a thriving community of educators who are empowered, healthy, and actively shaping the future of education and wellbeing.
To improve the wellbeing of educators through:
· Research and policy development
· Reward-based participation
· Strategic alignment with child welfare outcomes
· Opportunities to improve financial wellbeing
Strategic Objectives
To establish WEF as a respected think-tank for educator wellbeing and policy innovation.
To create and deliver preventive health services tailored to educators.
To create a reward ecosystem using both monetary incentives and other rewards.
To develop a selective membership model that values contribution and expertise.
To bridge educator wellbeing with student outcomes, creating a holistic impact.