This Loneliness Awareness Week, we are spotlighting our Being You Leeds service! Being You Leeds supports communities in Leeds to stay well, by creating spaces for people to connect with each other, learn about their mental health, and boost their wellbeing. Read on to learn more about their support in their own words…

Being You Leeds is a partnership service, funded by Public Health, that helps people to connect with others to stay well and build strong, resourced communities that can support each other through hard times. The aim of Being You Leeds is to be a preventative service – to offer anyone and everyone the support they need before getting to a point of crisis.

We do this in 3 ways:  

  • Providing groups and activities  focused on wellbeing. These fun, welcoming groups are free to access and run 7 days a week, including evenings and weekends. Groups are based around activities chosen by local communities and group members. See our latest groups timetable here! 
  • Providing training and awareness-raising sessions to people working in community organisations and to members of the public in Leeds. This includes fully-funded Mental Health First Aid, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills and SafeTALK trainings. See our training offer here! 
  • Tackling stigma and discrimination around mental health through all of our activities, training, campaigns, and within the city-wide Anti-Stigma strategic partnership and network. Click here for more information about our Anti-Stigma work! 

What Makes Being You Leeds So Special

There are lots of brilliant and unique things about Being You Leeds! Here are just a few of them: 

Our groups and training create safe, friendly community spaces focused on wellbeing and support. Being You Leeds provides welcoming, person-centred wellbeing groups and learning opportunities that bring people together to learn new skills and connect with each other. We do this by building on the 5 ways to wellbeing model, which encourages people to connect with others, be active, take notice of their surroundings, learn new things, and give back to their community to boost their wellbeing. By creating spaces for our communities to engage in these five steps, we can greatly reduce mental health problems and foster a welcoming community of likeminded people around hobbies, like walking, crocheting, yoga, music and board games. Many of our groups are also out-of-hours, during evenings and weekends, to give as many people as possible the opportunity to get involved! 

Our groups are designed by and for the communities we work in. We place co-production at the centre of everything we do. This means we create plenty of opportunities for members of the community to get involved in the design and delivery of our groups. We also support new community wellbeing groups to flourish through our Small Sparks funding. Small Sparks funding are micro-grants of up to £500 to local groups and activities that have a wellbeing focus so communities can take the lead on what helps them stay well! Find out more about our Small Sparks funding here.  

As a partnership of local third sector organisations, the Being You Leeds team also has a wide range of expertise and knowledge about the communities we work in. We are led by Touchstone, together with partners Barca, Hamara, Health for All, Holbeck Together, LS14 Trust, Women’s Health Matters, Humans Being and Community Links. All the organisations in our partnership are well known by their local communities and offer a wealth expertise and skills that make them well-placed to support those communities.  

Being You Leeds and Touchstone

Touchstone is the lead partner in Being You Leeds and we work with a range of other community and wellbeing organisations across Leeds to provide the very best support possible (see above for the full list). Our Being You Leeds team is part of the Community Development Services team at Touchstone, which focuses on providing preventative mental health support. We work closely with other Touchstone services like Better Together and Live Well Leeds to provide preventative, community wellbeing groups and support across the city.  

Our groups and training are open to diverse communities across Leeds and our anti-stigma work challenges all forms of stigma that might prevent people from accessing mental health support. To undertake this work, we draw from Touchstone’s expertise in co-production, inclusion and diversity to ensure we serve communities in a way that is truly centred around what they need to flourish.  

Getting support from Being You Leeds

Our Groups
Being You Leeds groups and activities are open to anyone aged 16+ who lives in Leeds. To join one of groups and activities, take a look at our timetable and if you find something you are interested in, contact the named person on that group to find out more or book a place. Booking is essential to ensure we know to expect you.   

Upon booking your place at one of groups, our community workers will get in touch with you to talk with you about any accessibility needs you may have so we can make sure the group is accessible for you. We can offer support like pre-

group visits to a location or discussing activities in depth beforehand. All our venues are wheelchair accessible, and we are always looking for feedback on ways to improve and make sure our venues are accessible as possible.  

If you are unsure about joining a group, we can also connect you with one of our friendly befriending volunteers. Starting with initial phone calls, our befrienders can offer one-to-one support to help you attend groups and feel more comfortable. Get in touch with us for a referral form.  

Our Training
Our training is open to any third sector professionals and volunteers. To join one of our training sessions, head to the Community Links website where you will find our training offer. From there, please fill in a booking form and submit to Community Links to confirm your place.  

Being You Leeds also offers free 6 weeks courses through our training partner Humans Being. Currently we offer two courses, one for men and one for women, who want to help protect and improve their mental health and wellbeing. These courses are free and focus on topics like improving self-esteem, stress and relaxation, identity and values, boundaries and 5 ways to wellbeing. To discuss facilitating a course for your group, get in touch with us via email: info@beingyouleeds.org.uk 

Our Anti-Stigma work
To tackle stigma and raise awareness, you can also join us as an Anti-Stigma champion! As an Anti-Stigma Champion, you can use your lived experience to raise awareness and tell your story at various events throughout Leeds. You can also join the city-wide anti-stigma partnership network and receive the twice-yearly newsletter by signing up here: https://forms.office.com/e/J6B76B0XfL 

Keep in touch 

To stay up to date on any events, there are several ways to stay in touch! 

Or get in touch directly: