Touchstone ranks at 20th place on Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers List for LGBTQ+ people and achieves a Gold Award!

Touchstone ranks at 20th place on Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers List for LGBTQ+ people and achieves a Gold Award!

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

2022-02-23T11:49:34+00:0023rd February 2022|LGBT*, News|

A night in Wortley Well-Bean Café

Blog by Mark Robinson - Touchstone Business Development Officer As a Business Development Officer, I spend a lot of time writing about the services that Touchstone deliver.  I usually get my information from our website, quarterly reports and from phone conversations with service managers.  We are doing quite a bit of work around Crisis Cafes / Safe Spaces at the moment, so I thought it would be really useful to

2022-02-23T16:39:49+00:0010th February 2022|Blog, Crisis support|

Local men’s network celebrates funding and national award nomination.

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

2022-02-02T15:15:47+00:002nd February 2022|Awards, Community, News, Partnership|

Touchstone turning #BlueMonday to #YouMonday

The third Monday of January has been awarded the gloomy name 'Blue Monday' due to a combination of post-festive blues and cold dark nights. At Touchstone, we're challenging the title by asking our amazing service users, volunteers and staff what things they do to keep well. Let's turn this Blue Monday into a You Monday! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLlqEmO83SE   Important websites and numbers: West Yorkshire mental health 24/7 support line, provides confidential

2022-01-20T13:48:52+00:0020th January 2022|Blog|

Charity Awards Roundtable: Better by co-design

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

2022-01-17T11:26:19+00:0017th January 2022|Awards, Community, Coproduction, News, Touchstone Loves Food|

Say hello to Touchstone’s new Senior Leadership Team!

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

2022-01-13T12:45:45+00:0013th January 2022|News|

Touchstone’s former CEO, Alison Lowe, has been awarded an OBE

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

2022-01-07T13:41:02+00:007th January 2022|Awards, News|

Touchstone’s Annual Review 2021

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

2021-12-13T11:36:26+00:0030th November 2021|Annual Report, News|

16 Days of Action 2021

Touchstone as an organisation is committed to supporting the 16 days of action to end the global violence experienced by women and girls. The campaign runs from 25th November (UN Day For the Elimination of Violence against Women) to 10th December 2021.  The 16 Days of Action campaign is an important opportunity to raise awareness and call for changes at an international, national and local level to end violence against women and

2021-11-25T12:38:53+00:0025th November 2021|Blog|