For those who suffer from any form of mental health issue, organisations like Mind can be a literal life saver. Offering support, advice and wider wellness services, Mind in Croydon are currently raising funds with easyfundraising and have raised just over £200 to date. We spoke to Cara from Mind in Croydon to find out more about the charity and their fundraising.
Tell us about Mind in Croydon
We were set up to support those with mental health issues in Croydon. These can include anything from anxiety, depression, OCD, personality disorder, bipolar, schizophrenia and any other mental health issue. We provide help 365 days a year with a Recovery Space where people can go in a crisis to get expert advice and support.
We also provide counselling, welfare benefits advice and advocacy. In addition, we help carers with information and advice. These are just a few of our services. Another area we are very active in is promoting wellness and to that end, we have a wonderful and productive allotment where people can get close to the soil and grow magnificent vegetables and flowers. We also have an Active Minds group that encourages and supports people to get into a wide range of positive activities to improve and maintain good mental and physical health including yoga, cycling, walking, and badminton.
What do you need funding for?
In common with many other charities we have experienced cuts to funding over recent years and increases in costs such as energy and maintenance costs in our premises. The unrestricted funds we obtain from easyfundraising can help towards this. More importantly though, it can help us to create innovative projects requested by our clients, such as our equine therapy project.
We are very keen on user involvement and encourage our clients to guide us in what services they find most useful. With the sort of funds we get from easyfundraising, we can try new projects out, pilot them, in order to refine what we provide and then we can use the positive results to apply for bigger grants to make ours’ and our clients’ dreams a reality.
Why did you sign up to easyfundraising?
It is such an easy platform for people to use and as above, the funding is unrestricted which is so important to charities like ours, to have the flexibility to trial new projects and services.
Everybody has to shop at some time and if they can do us as a local charity some good in the process, it is a win, win situation. It’s great that literally everyone connected to the charity can fundraise for us at no extra cost to them.
What have the easyfundraising funds made possible to date?
There have been 2 key projects the funding has been put towards. Firstly, our equine therapy project. This has made a real difference to those who take part. One client, with PTSD has said that the time they spend at the stables, grooming and walking the horses is the only time in the week when they are not on tenterhooks. Of all the therapies they have tried, it has been the most useful, and the thing they look forward to each week.
Secondly, our welfare benefits service, which is essential for many people. Some time ago, we had a single parent who was at risk of having their children taken into care. It had been noted that their children had come to school with uniform which was not as specified and this lead to scrutiny of all aspects of their parenting. When our expert and experienced welfare benefits advisers carried out a thorough check on their entitlement it was found that the single parent had in fact been providing for their children with far less than they were entitled too. Far from being a parent who was wanting, they cared very much for their children and had been foregoing things for themselves to make ends meet, but on a fraction of the benefits to which they were entitled. They were in fact managing very well on very little but should have had more. We took them through the process to obtain them all that they should have been receiving. As a result, their lives and that of their children are now much more secure and the family is firmly together and thriving with a parent who is far less stressed and children who have the things that they need.
What are you currently fundraising towards?
At the moment we are seeking to raise funds for a counsellor specifically to help those from marginalised communities. In addition, we are also seeking funding to turn a redundant garage at one of our projects which is no longer being used into more space to provide counselling and group work. The buildings works and refurbishment to repurpose what will be an excellent space is a major project of ours at present.
We would also love to invest more into our equine therapy project as mentioned above.
How have you promoted easyfundraising to supporters to get them to shop in support?
We are very active on social media and use our presence there to spread the word. We will be having more of a drive on this front in the near future. We are also in the process of starting up a new newsletter and we promote easyfundraising to our 60+ staff team and to our volunteers and other stakeholders as much as we can, at our site here in Croydon and digitally.
What would be your top tip for other causes on easyfundraising, or advice for those not using it yet.
It’s just so easy, the most important thing is promotion. Let everyone know that the potential to raise is huge with such little effort and no additional costs. There are so many retailers on the platform too, literally everyone who shops online could make a difference for your cause.
How you can support Mind in Croydon
Mind in Croydon offer such an important service to people across their community, it is literally life changing – providing support and advice for people who need it most and feel like they have nowhere else to turn. If you would like to support them every time you shop, visit their easyfundraising page here.
If you support another cause not currently using easyfundraising, register a new cause here.
If you would like to know more about the charity or access their services please visit www.mindincroydon.org.uk.