(Written by Matthew Hall – LSLCS Crisis Support Worker at WBC) Thursday this week represents World Mental Health Day. At the Well Bean Café, you will not be judged because of your mental health. You will not be stigmatised if you have a mental health diagnosis. You will not be made to feel different because of how you are currently feeling. We don’t see negative mental health, a diagnosis
Dorothy Johnson Vaughan worked as a mathematician on the SCOUT Launch Vehicle Program that sent America’s first satellites into space. Who Was Dorothy Johnson Vaughan? Dorothy Johnson Vaughan was an African American mathematics teacher who became one of the leading mathematical engineers in early days of the aerospace industry. After the U.S. defence industry desegregated, Vaughan worked with leading computer operators and engineers, becoming an expert in the FORTRAN programming
Marsha P. Johnson was an African American transgender woman and revolutionary LGBTQ rights activist. She is credited for being an instigator in the Stonewall riots. Who Was Marsha P. Johnson? Marsha P. Johnson was an African American transgender women who was an LGBTQ rights activist and an outspoken advocate for trans people of colour. Johnson spearheaded the Stonewall uprising in 1969 and along with Sylvia Rivera, she later established the
Born in Accra in the Gold Coast to parents with roots in Barbados, Trinidad and Dominica, she became Britain’s youngest and first Black woman book publisher, when in 1967 she co-founded Allison & Busby with Clive Allison (1944-2011). “We started off with virtually no money and thought we would go into making volumes of poetry accessible and affordable to young people like ourselves. So we printed 15,000 paperback poetry books
Before coming to Touchstone, I was not unfamiliar with being around individuals living with dementia; my grandfather was diagnosed 5 years ago, and I have seen first-hand how his condition has progressed, and the effects this has had on him and other family members. While my grandparents are regular attendees of the group, I had no idea what to expect! However, I was pleasantly surprised… I was impressed with the
10th September is World Suicide Prevention Day. It is also the day Leeds will launch its latest Suicide Audit findings from 2014-2016, alongside information on the work the City is funding to support suicide prevention; including our own Mentally Healthy Leeds. According to the Alliance of Suicide Prevention Charities (TASC), suicide is the greatest cause of death amongst young men (15-44) in the UK as well as many young women
(Written by Matthew Hall – LSLCS Crisis Support Worker at WBC) Tuesday 10/9/19 this week represents World Suicide Prevention Day around the world. As a worker in this service who has personally been bereaved by suicide, as well as supporting visitors to our service who have always experienced this – I feel it is incredibly important that as a service that we acknowledge and reflect on the impact suicide
Another year, another fabulous show of Touchstone supporting the LGBT+ community at Leeds Pride! Partnering with Leeds Mind, Live Well Leeds, and Community Links, this year our #PartnersInPride saw a great turn out for the biggest parade ever seen at Leeds Pride, with 130 companies parading and over 60,000 spectators. P.S. Ours was the big red vintage bus, full of and surrounded by our celebratory colleagues and clients – and
Check out Xine, a new quarterly magazine from Non-Binary Action. https://nonbinaryaction.org/xine Non-Binary Action campaigns for the rights and respect of non-binary people and other marginalised groups. Xine is a quarterly publication from Non-Binary Action to share articles, interviews, reviews, poetry, art, stories and other work by non-binary people across the world.
In June here at Touchstone we were asked to present a workshop at the PWP National Networking Forum for IAPT in Birmingham. Aniysa Azam (Senior PWP) and myself (Deputy Manager) went and shared the Touchstone PWP team's learning over the last 6 years on topics of: common challenges in delivering a good quality and equitable service to clients from Black and Minority backgrounds and what Touchstone have done to overcome these challenges. We covered how to challenge