Malala Yousafzai turned 21 on the 12th of July. A few months ago I popped into my local library at the Reginald Centre and walked out with a copy of a now 5-year-old book: “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban”. You may have read it yourself – a vibrant story of a father and his daughter and their
Dear colleagues Some of you are aware that over the past 6 -8 months, I have been working alongside Richard, Steve, Arfan and our consortium partners to audit and review the workforce diversity profile of Leeds IAPT. This piece of work is now complete and I’d like to share some of our findings with you. You might be wondering, why you? Well, from a personal perspective I had always been
Jim Leyland (Touchstone's Operations Director – Inclusion) talks about the work Touchstone does to ensure adequate safeguarding for our clients and their communities. I am really excited in Safeguarding Week to share the work we have been doing at Touchstone with Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board. We were asked to contribute a service user voice to the new Leeds Safeguarding Adults policy and procedure. Colleagues from the board, including the chair of
The Best Start Peer Support Programme aims to empower individuals and families about the relationships they have at home and with professionals, in order that they make healthier informed choices about their lives and therefore become better carers and parents producing healthy children, in line with the Best Start plan for the city. In year one, we received 152 referrals. We have successfully found our niche and created a programme
On 31 March 2018 there were 1244 active service users accessing Touchstone services. This suggests that on any given day we have well over 1000 active service users across Touchstone services. 59% of Touchstone’s active service users come from BME backgrounds. All Touchstone services have a BME service user profile above the 2011 Census baseline. The percentage of active service users defining themselves as bisexual, gay or lesbian is 3.6%.
THE WELL-BEAN CRISIS CAFÉ – HOPE IN A CRISIS BLOG – June 2018 (Written by Matthew Hall – Crisis Support Worker at WBC) Since the last blog was released – we are pleased to announce that funding for the Well-Bean Café has been secured, and the service has now been extended until the end of March 2019 – which we feel is great news for our visitors and staff alike.
Sunday 17 June - Syrian Community of Leeds and Damasq 2.30pm to 8.30pm - Ebor Gardens Community Centre, 79 Haslewood Drive, Leeds, LS9 7PS This event is to bring all together to celebrate through food and sports! There will be a free Syrian Bakery and a sports competition for children. All are welcome. Contact: Fawaz Alghofari alghofari2007@yahoo.co.uk Monday 18 June - Meeting Point open gathering 10.00am-12.00pm - One Community Centre, Cromwell
With Carer's Week falling during the month of Ramadhan, Shuria Alam (Carers Support Worker) talks about the impact of fasting and the need for culturally sensitive support for carers. Ramadhan is the ninth month of the Islamic Lunar calendar, and this year will begin around 17th May and end around 16th June 2018. For 29/30 days depending on the moon, Muslims spend the daylight hours in complete fast, abstaining from
For BNF Healthy Eating Week, Touchstone trustee Julie Laxton offers some guidance on how to look after ourselves by choosing what we eat. Healthy eating sounds really boring, but it will help you to keep well and feel better. It can prevent some diseases in the future for example, heart disease and diabetes. What is a well balanced diet? This means eating the right foods for your body to grow,
I didn’t really know what to make of Best Start Peer Support when I first heard about it. It intrigued me, but I wasn’t sure it was my thing. A friend of mine had done it and told me I would enjoy it, so I decided to take myself out of my comfort zone and go. I felt trepidation at going somewhere that offered me ways to cope better, and