by John Harris | Nov 24, 2024 | news
For a few months John has been working with Hammersley Homes – in Hampshire. Hammersley Homes provides a service to people with enduring severe mental health issues and psychotic conditions – a service that is not available elsewhere due to any statutory support being short term only – and without which the clients they support suffer. Now, most of these unfortunate and vulnerable people live alone, often in chaos and unable to manage; or they are homeless; or they live with family members who one day won’t be there for them. They live too often without friends, a sense of community, or a sense of purpose – things we all need for our general wellbeing. Working with a team of trained staff and volunteers, HH visit people who experience enduring mental health challenges and illnesses in Hampshire, relieving loneliness and doing what they can to help clients reach their own personal goals and live their best life. Through offering friendship and help with tasks which clients struggle to manage – such as cooking, online access, budgeting, incoming mail, benefits, social and community interaction, and hobbies – lives can be enriched. This grant of £20,000 will contribute to the key role of CEO. They had secured funding for the Outreach programme for the next two years but this does not cover other essential costs. The CEO role is pivotal to the organisation and services. She manages all eight staff, puts in place all necessary policies and procedures which safeguard the outreach workers and volunteers, leads on the proper financial management and income generation of the charity, develops methods to capture and assess the impact of the support provided, supports the trustees in developing the strategic and business planning, leads on collaboration with other agencies.
by John Harris | Nov 15, 2024 | news
John has been working with Together Dementia Support for some time now – and together have achieved significant results. The latest is a 3 year funding grant of over £300,000 from Reaching Communities to support their invaluable work in supporting people with dementia and their carers.The TDS Vision is that everyone living with dementia and their carers has access to support, friendships, stimulating activities and has their voice heard. This is done through these objectives: 1. To improve the quality of life of our service users 2. To amplify the voice of people living with dementia and carers, and showcase their talents, enabling them to participate in research and influence the provision of dementia services 3. To work with partners to improve services 4. To increase awareness and understanding of dementia and reduce stigma. This project, Together We are Strong, sought investment in 4 key staff roles – the CEO, Service Delivery Manager, Business Development Manager, Volunteer Coordinator and impact monitoring. These are key roles that the organisation relies on to be successful. The immediate outputs of a decision to fund would be the continuation of the management and provision of services and increased capacity to undertake evidence-based development work and fundraising. With the small, proposed changes to the business support side of their staffing, they should have more focus on income generation opportunities and the marketing and communication of their work. To date TDS has focussed almost entirely on delivering more services to more people. Now they are focussing more on showing the impact of what they’ve been doing and getting others to support that work.
