The racist and Islamophobic violence we are seeing up and down the country is horrifying. As the streets of our neighbourhoods and community spaces, our libraries and advice centres, are threatened and targeted, the places we call home have been made unsafe for many in our communities. In particular, racially minoritized people, Muslims, and people with experiences of the migration system have been enormously impacted by this violence. An
On Monday 8th August, Touchstone’s BME Dementia Service featured on ITV calendar news to call for more funding for BME-specific support and care for those living with dementia. Here is a summary of the report, with the full link below: The segment includes clips from the service’s weekly Hamari Yaadain (Our Memories) support cafes for South Asian people living with dementia. The café runs in five South Asian languages,
In May 2022 Arfan Hanif was involved in a national panel discussion on Co-production with number of national Charity leaders in attendance. Arfan stated: "When we say that co-production is an equal relationship – no it isn’t. We’re there to serve our communities. They’re the leaders – so that’s the reason I don’t like the term co-production, because it’s the language of the system" Please follow the link below, to
Touchstone places at 20 in Stonewall list of Top Employers for LGBTQ+ people Touchstone was also placed second in their sector and achieved a Gold Award for their commitment and efforts in continuing to be an LGBTQ+ employer. Stonewall’s Top 100 employers List ranks organisations on their efforts and commitment to creating welcoming environments for their lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer staff. Organisations are ranked by a set of
A local network supporting men’s health is celebrating this week having been awarded over £300,000 by the National Lottery, as well as being nominated for a national Project of the Year award. Men’s Health Unlocked (MHU), a partnership between four local charitable bodies (Barca-Leeds, Forum Central, the Orion Partnership and Touchstone) and Leeds City Council, has received two years’ worth of funding from the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund, to
A few months ago, Arfan was involved in a national roundtable discussion hosted by the Civil Society discussing 'Co-Design' and 'Co-Production' and what these terms mean in reality. See below an excerpt from the article: After this year’s Charity Awards, Charity Finance invited a group of charities whose applications highlighted their commitment to co-production and co-design to share their experiences and learning. Tania Mason listened in. A strong theme that
I am delighted to announce that Touchstone have recently appointed 2 new Operations Directors (Dave Pickard and Sophie Hailwood) and Kathryn Hart as Deputy CEO to the Senior Leadership Team. Kathryn will continue to retain her HR Director role. After a period of significant change in senior leadership positions including my appointment as CEO in August 2021, Sharon Brown’s appointment as Business Development Director in January 2021 and Zoe Bridge’s
Alison Lowe, Touchstone’s previous Chief Executive Officer has been awarded an OBE for her services to mental health and wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Individuals from the worlds of sport, music, social care, the local community and local government are among those who have been awarded a string of honours in the Queen’s annual list, which recognises those who have gone above and beyond in their field and made a
This year, we have compiled a winter wellbeing booklet to support people over the winter period and a place to see which services Touchstone are running during this time. Please click the image below to download the booklet.
It has been another tough 12 months where we have continued to deliver much needed mental health and wellbeing services to our diverse local communities in Yorkshire. Despite all the challenges related to the Covid-19 Pandemic I am proud to say Touchstone remains a beacon for positive change where the voice and needs of our service users and communities is at the heart of everything we do. As the