Blog

Touchstone Service user, turned volunteer Princewell talks about his experiences of seeking asylum and gaining refugee status… 

My experience and challenges as a refugee are to be summarised as less challenging than the Asylum and post asylum era where I can say I saw everything from deprivation, financial challenges and homelessness. Getting the refugee status was a big sigh of relief because it unlocked doors which have been locked and kept me in a limbo to access any rights. The next challenge was to engage with the

2020-04-17T10:07:06+01:0029th October 2015|Blog, Volunteering|
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Spotlight on: Refugees, People Seeking Asylum and Mental Health

Samantha Powell leads on the work with Refugees and People Seeking Asylum within the Community Development Service and has written an article to explore some of the barriers they face when accessing services. Since 1999 Leeds has been a main dispersal area for people seeking asylum in the UK. Lots of communities have settled, and continue to be dispersed to Leeds from all over the world. The biggest groups are

2020-04-17T10:07:01+01:0028th October 2015|Blog|
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World Statistic Day – Ethnicity Recording

In the Community Development Service here at Touchstone we aim to achieve a greater understanding and ownership of mental health issues facing Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Leeds. For World Statistics Day on 20th October, John Halsall, Community Health Development Analyst,  has written the first in a series of data blogs. Please take a few minutes to take a look Mental health services do not report ethnicity for one in eight

2020-04-17T10:06:52+01:0020th October 2015|Blog, Data and Statistics, Diversity, Research|
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Coming Out

“I'm going to talk to you tonight about coming out of the closet, and not in the traditional sense, not just the gay closet. I think we all have closets. Your closet may be telling someone you love her for the first time, or telling someone that you're pregnant, or telling someone you have cancer, or any of the other hard conversations we have throughout our lives. All a closet

2020-04-17T10:06:22+01:009th October 2015|Blog, Diversity|
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Black History Month – a LGBT perspective

As a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Touchstone is committed to improving the lives of LGBT people both in the workplace and wider community. Which is why we want to pass on these practical tips about how best to celebrate Black History Month from Stonewall’s Josh Willacy. Black History Month has been celebrated every October in the UK for over 35 years. We know that LGBT people who are black, Asian or minority

2020-04-17T10:06:16+01:005th October 2015|Blog, Diversity|
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Bi-Visibility Day – 23rd September

Here at Touchstone, we like to eat cake! So celebrating Bi-Visibility Day on 23rd September will be a great opportunity to also eat our favourite food. Another reason to support Bi-Visibility Day is that whilst the profile of Gay, Lesbian and Trans people is at last on the up, the visibility of the Bi community is much less so. Bi-Visibility or Bisexuality Day is the brainchild of three American bisexual

2020-04-17T10:06:02+01:0022nd September 2015|Blog, Diversity|
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World Alzheimer's Day – case study

To mark World Alzheimer's Day (21st September), Ripaljeet Kaur has provided this case study of one of the clients supported by Touchstone's BME Dementia Service Mrs B was referred into the service by another organisation. She lives with her daughter-in-law, who is her full time carer, as well as her son and grandson. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2005 and never accessed any support since then. She is very

2015-09-21T14:24:12+01:0021st September 2015|Blog, Case Study, Dementia|
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Migrant Access Point project in 4 minutes

Touchstone's Community Development Service has produced this video to explain the work of the Migrant Access Point project, empowering community members to improve access for their communities to services in Leeds. Migrant Access Point Project in 4 minutes from Touchstone on Vimeo.

2015-09-18T10:56:00+01:0018th September 2015|Blog, CDS Publications, Video|
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Friends for Life: International Friendship Day

Vanysha Sahota from Touchstone's Community Development Service wrote this article to mark International Friendship Day - and to talk about the role of friendship in personal and family life.   When I think about the word ‘friend’, images of certain people take over my mind along with memories of good and bad times. Many people who have passed through my life, I have called my friends, from nursery and primary

2020-04-17T10:05:04+01:0031st July 2015|Blog, Friendship, Stress|
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