The Situation

We are Doncaster Mind; an independent, local charity and a team of 15 passionate and dynamic people, delivering non clinical, emotional & social support to the residents of Doncaster.

The whole country is experiencing a mental health crisis. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the number of people experiencing depression has doubled and at the same time diagnoses have declined by almost a quarter. This highlights that access to mental health care is in decline.

Here at Doncaster Mind we see the increase in people reaching out for our already stretched services on a day to day basis and we’re working hard to secure funding to be able to provide more services and help more people.

Our Plan

We’re facing this crisis head on.

We know our approach to supporting people with their wellbeing and mental health works. We’re successfully reaching more and more communities across Doncaster and providing an increasing range of services.

We’ve recently set up a team of five Mental Health Community Connectors working in localities across Doncaster to connect people to existing community support closer to home. We’ve also secured funding to provide support to Ukrainian war refugees in Doncaster. We’re expanding our services for Young People and have many more projects in the pipeline.

What’s needed

In a nutshell, we’re a growing team with limited office space. We’re trying to rationalise the space we have to facilitate as much support as we can to as many people as possible whilst giving our team workspace that doesn’t impact on areas in which we deliver services. We use all of our funding to offer our services free to our clients – this doesn’t leave us with much to spend on adjustments to our office space.

We are appealing to supporters new & old, to help raise funds for us to:

· double our desk space

· provide ergonomic desk chairs for our practitioners

· re-wire our electrical & data cabling

How can you help?

Donate – we have set up a JustGiving page with the funds solely going to our Build project - https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/builddoncastermind

Spread the word – tell others what we’re doing, the more people that know the better. We appreciate how tough it is at the moment, this is one contributing factor to the crisis, but if you can’t help yourself, you may know someone who can.

Fundraise – we can offer support with any fund raising ideas you may have. We also have some events of our own that you may wish to take part in see website for more details.

Sponsor – would your company or organisation like to sponsor key parts of our Build project or our office? Your connection with us is a great way to show how much you both understand the importance of mental health support and how much you care. We have service delivery rooms that we would love you to name & sponsor which would carry your company or organisation’s logo.

To talk to us about our Build project, please contact Nigel Barnes on 07490 324292, email nigel@doncastermind.org.uk or use our contact us page.

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