Mental Health Support Bringing Generations Together

Leeds Mind promotes positive mental health and wellbeing, and provides help and support to those who need it.

The Time to Shine Intergenerational Grant allowed them to run the ‘Art, Age & Environment’ project, a 10-week creative course pairing individuals over 50 and under 25.

• Can you describe your organisation and the people/communities you support?

At Leeds Mind, our vision is to provide better mental health for all, and our mission is to enable people with mental health difficulties to flourish. Our counselling, peer support, employment, arts, suicide bereavement, social prescribing and training services build on people’s strengths, help them overcome obstacles and become more in control of their lives.

We work with local communities to understand and respond to their needs, reducing stigma around mental health in and around Leeds. We aim at creating a community where everyone experiencing a mental health difficulty gets both support and respect.

• How have you been supported by Leeds Community Foundation and what has this funding enabled you to do? 

We are really grateful for the support we received from Leeds Community Foundation through the Time to Shine Intergenerational Grant, which allowed us to run the ‘Art, Age & Environment’ project, a 10-week creative course pairing individuals over 50 and under 25. The 10 participants were recruited through different mental health services within Leeds Mind and externally. They collaborated in discussions and workshops around climate change, the environment and the planet, ultimately ending in a collaborative art piece that was displayed at an exhibition at Inkwell Arts, our art centre in Chapel Allerton.

‘Art, Age & Environment’ has improved the mental health and wellbeing of the participants. It has helped people to feel less isolated, to participate in their local community, and will have a lasting impact on its beneficiaries, who have now formed friendships and are participating in other creative projects with Inkwell Arts.

• Can you give us an example of an individual and or group and how they have responded to this work?

One of the greatest successes we have seen on this course came from a participant who came back to the building shortly after a workshop, after the very first session. They explained to us that they had had a very traumatic year and had been in and out of hospital. Their mental health was suffering terribly and they wanted us to know that this was the first time they had left the house in months (apart from hospital appointments). They were so grateful for the opportunity and their confidence and strength as a person grew throughout the course. They ended up creating one of the most interesting and talked about pieces in the final exhibition. They have also started to attend other regular sessions at Inkwell Arts now the course has finished.

• What challenges and opportunities do you face as an organisation in the current climate?

Like many charities, our fundraising income has been drastically impacted by Covid-19, in 2020 due to the cancellations of all the mass participation events and in aid of events, corporate supporters working from home, and more generally uncertain times that meant people found it more challenging to support charities. Although 2021 looked like it was going to be a better year – and it has in many ways – we have observed people have still been reluctant to organise or take part in events that would involve mixing with people.

• How is your organisation preparing for the future, and what kind of funding is needed?

We are at the final stages of our Leeds Mind Strategy for 2022-2025 to make sure we are offering the right support to those who need it in our community. Our Strategy will shape our funding strategy. Currently, our Peer Support Service is self-funded, so funding is always needed, as well as core funding to maintain the adequate financial needs for all our services.