Positive Care Programme – Tai Chi
Carol - one of the tutors from the Positive Care Programme - demonstrates tai chi movements that can be used even by people with chronic health conditions.
Future Plans for PAFRAS and Touchstone
Touchstone are proud to announce a 6 month extension to their mental health partnership with PAFRAS, funded by NHS Leeds. PAFRAS provide mental health outreach and support to destitute asylum seekers from their weekly drop-ins at St Aidan’s Church - reaching many people who remain “off the radar” and invisible to most other services. The service helps asylum seekers with mental health difficulties to manage their mental health more effectively, and provides them with
Touchstone: ending mental health stigma
At Touchstone, we believe everyone has a right to be respected, no matter who they are, where they are from, or the experiences they have had. Sadly, admitting to having difficulties with how you feel, is still a problem for many people. This is why Touchstone is committed to challenging the misconceptions and stereotypes which have grown up around mental distress, and which make recovering from hard times even harder. Read some more
Touchstone’s continuing work to support LGB staff
By Alison Lowe - Touchstone Chief Executive and LGB Champion I am delighted to announce that Touchstone has improved 42 places in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index and we are now ranked 170 out of 363 employers. Jay (current manager of the Community Support Team) and I met with staff from Stonewall on 24th February to go through our performance and understand how we can improve further and achieve our
Touchstone: reducing reoffending, boosting employability
Working in partnership with the West Yorkshire Probation Trust, Touchstone is improving the employability of offenders with mental health issues through the Step Change project. Mental health has been identified as a barrier into employment, education and training among ex-offenders. People are often marginalised and can fall through the net. In addition to employability-building, a large part of our work is to identify ex-offenders' mental health support needs and refer them
Latest news from the Sikh Elders Service
Sikh Elders Service have just published their seventh newsletter, including news about "Nice Cup of Tea" - a social and art project that a number of service users took part in "Voice of Sikh Elders" - a community consultation event at Ramgharia Sikh Centre on 8th March Yoga classes, swimming lessons and aqua aerobics Photos from the celebration of International Day of Older People Notes on Personalisation and how it
Touchstone at 30
In 1982, a drop-in centre “providing little else but support and a cup of tea” opened in South Leeds. That was the beginning of the charity now called Touchstone. Since those early days, we’ve been through many changes – now offering a diverse range of services to support the well-being of many people across West Yorkshire. Now that Touchstone is turning 30, we’d like to thank everybody who’s been
Sundar Mann – monthly dementia cafe
On 22nd December, Yorkshire Evening Post published an article on services for older people in Leeds, including the following extract about Sundar Mann dementia cafe... In Harehills, mental health charity Touchstone in partnership with Leeds Memory Service and others runs a dementia café, giving members of the south Asian community who have dementia, and their carers, a chance to come together to socialise. Community development worker Hafizur said about
International volunteering conference in Brno
Jay, manager of the Community Support Team at Leeds-based charity Touchstone, gave a presentation on “Best Practice in Volunteering” at a recent conference held in Leeds’ twin city Brno, Czech Republic. The conference on the subject of young people volunteering in social services was hosted by Czech NGO Ratolest Brno as part of the European Year of the Volunteer. Touchstone had been invited to contribute to the conference –
Designing substance use services collaboratively
About a year ago, a group of people drawn from Leeds University, Leeds Partnerships Foundation Trust, South West Yorkshire Foundation Trust and others (including Touchstone, Altogether Better and User Voice ) came together to think about how Health Services in Leeds could be thought about, designed and delivered co-productively. We wanted to find ways of working more collaboratively - where people who use health services and people who provide