Without Walls
Markfield, UK
We are a charity that continues to step up and deliver our charitable objectives by serving our community in a real and relevant way, meeting the needs of our beneficiaries, our fully inclusive work has expanded and diversified. Our project,‘ Thrive’. helps to address health and wellbeing, with a view to improving overall quality of life and in many instances the extension of life, and although we are a small charity, we punch above our weight, reaching up to 280 people weekly. Many of our guests are vulnerable, marginalised, experiencing disadvantage and distress. We look to promote personhood as without personhood, a person’s sense of well-being will be greatly affected. Most of our guests are elderly but not all as we attract a mixture of ages and abilities, providing help through community support and activities. We recognise that individuals have unique values, personal history, and personalities, and that each person we encounter, has an equal right to dignity, respect, and to participate fully in their environment- our work helps to enable them to do that. Presently we run singing cafes in six different community neighbourhood venues across Leicestershire, aimed at helping people with a broad range of mental health challenges including Dementia and social isolation. In addition, we offer party lunches which are designed to help predominantly elderly people with mental health challenges and loneliness. Both the singing cafes and the lunch parties have lots of common benefits, helping people engage with community and feel connected. Research conducted by the charity ‘Mind’ found that 84% of people with mental health challenges feel isolated. Our work helps address that. The singing cafes continue to be online via zoom once a week, and the lunch parties happen at our charity facility in Stanton, and our guests can also take advantage of our telephoning and visiting service, with medical appointment transport. Both arms of the project have enabled us to reach and help many, ranging from those who are physically and mentally challenged to those who are isolated, suffering with severe loneliness, with many of our guests accessing both arms of the project. Through a connection with the ‘FareShare’ scheme we have connected with some food outlets and we have been able to offer a new arm to our work, helping to limit food waste and help those who are experiencing food poverty. We call this ‘The People’s Pantry’. Like all of our work, it is open to anyone and we have been able to get some very needed food items into the hands of people who need help with their food budget. We know that poverty can be closely linked to mental health being both a cause and a consequence. We want to do all we can to limit the negative impact of lack on people’s well-being! Many of our project guests have been able to take advantage of this new offer and we are making some new connections
What we've received