Everyone experiences episodes of mental ill health, just as everyone experiences episodes of physical ill health. Our Peer facilitated Support Groups help adults throughout Leeds take responsibility for their mental wellbeing. By hearing others share ‘Lived Experiences’, Group members learn how they can better manage their own mental ill health.
Our Group members and facilitators are all Peers who believe passionately in the value of free, weekly Peer Support Groups where participation is open-ended. They need their Support Groups to continue and thrive.
On top of previous levels of mental ill-health, today many Leeds people are struggling to cope with the aftermath of the COVID pandemic and/or additional impacts on their mental wellbeing casued by the ongoing economic crisis. The number of adults in Leeds whose mental health is suffering continues to growing rapidly while NHS provision continues to contract.
At Peer Support Plus CIO our volunteer Trustees, Facilitators and Administrators are well into their fourth year of offering Peer facilitated Support Groups to all adults in the Leeds Metropolitan District. This financial year we will make available 10 seats at each of over 100 two-hour Support Groups on an operating budget of just £1,500. That is extraordinary value.
We choose to operate and manage the Charity at very low cost. Trustees mostly meet by Zoom. We have no employees, no office and no physical assets to support. Our operating costs are nearly all connected with providing Support Groups – including the Zoom licence, Insurance, DBS safeguarding checks, website, mobile phone, and our internet connected loan tablets which enable ‘digitally disadvantaged’ individuals to participate in our evening Support Group by Zoom.
Previous one-off Grants and ongoing small Donations mean we can reasonably expect to be financially secure until March 2025 but we must ramp up our fundraising efforts now if we are to survive longer. Our costs are modest so funding them is a truly achievable goal.
To learn more about Peer Support Plus CIO, please browse our website peersupportplus.org.
If you are interested in exploring the possibility of volunteering as our Fundraiser and would like an informal chat, please email your telephone number to Gill our volunteer Secretary Trustee secretary@peersupportplus.org. She will try to call at a time that suits you.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Finally, if you were able to offer broader skills and experience, and were interested in taking a second volunteer role helping with the ongoing Governance and Development of our small local charity, we would be open to our Fundraiser joining the Board as an additional Trustee. (See our Trustee advert.) That opportunity is entirely optional as we would be content to have the services of a specialist volunteer Fundraiser who would report to our Treasurer Trustee.
Volunteer as a Trustee of Peer Support Plus CIO