The Kelly Foundation Swindon – a wonderful entity that, for whatever reason, I’ve not got around to doing a blog post about. My bad. But a newsletter from them plopped into my inbox the other day and that’s prompted me. So what follows is the newsletter from the founder and chair, John Stooke, edited a bit for SEO – it serves to give you a flavour of what the Kelly Foundation is all about.
We (the Kelly Foundation) provide a completely free, self-referral support service for clients. We also accept referrals from community health nurses and other professionals.
Further, we offer face-to-face counselling and support over the normal working day five days per week. And we also undertake what we describe as a holistic service. It’s our belief that this is unique in the Swindon landscape. The charity doesn’t only support individuals with poor mental health, depression and anxiety in one-to-one sessions. We go further in seeking to uncover the causes of the stresses that contribute to the client’s poor health. And then together try to make things better. We become actively involved in seeking to support clients unravel these causes.
How illness arises
Illness can arise from such things as:
- Severe and prolonged debt
- Financial pressure
- Marital or relationship breakdown
- Loss of job
- Substance or alcohol abuse
- Traumatic events or quite often, previous life experiences.
Our work
We often become involved with the local housing department and associations to try and mitigate housing issues. Our involvement can also mean hiring in specific skills and techniques not in the charity.
Our work involves helping clients find the right benefits, joint visits to universal credit, or to GPs, and liaison with drug and alcohol specialists. We help some clients back into mainstream work with supported employment. And even speak up for clients in court where they cannot afford solicitors or get legal aid. Whatever it takes, the Kelly Foundation will do its best.
The charity continues on a path of steady growth and development. But we remain ambitious to embed ourselves in the local mental health landscape for the long-term. This will need a significant step up in funding and development in the organisation to broaden responsibility and increased resources. Unlike S & G Mind, we receive no statutory funding whatsoever. And, despite the government recently pledging £millions in new money to tackle the epidemic of poor mental health, it’s not at all clear how to bid for, or access, any of this funding.
New initiative
We do have a new initiative we are developing which will need collaborative support from across the community. And we have a number of meetings planned to introduce the concept to bodies. These we hope, will feel enthused to come on board.
I’m also very keen to put in place a development plan for Kell’s Kitchen. The café plays a significant role now in the community. It’s a warm meeting space, somewhere customers can find good basic food and drink at sensible prices. And it’s an opportunity to outreach our services. But there’s so much more potential.
I’m convinced it can do more good across the whole town. And there’s no reason why it should not be replicated in other areas.
It will continue to help more individuals either in recovery or with a degree of learning difficulty, to develop confidence and self-esteem. And, at the same time, learn new valuable skills. We’re talking to a few people at the moment about a café development coordinator. I’ve invited Debbie Raikesmay, who has a lot of experience in this area, to help us with this task.
I continue to be very proud of what the charity is achieving. We couldn’t do any of this without you, our donors, supporters, colleagues and especially our volunteers, who work so hard to make the charity the success it is today. My sincere thanks to you all.
More about the Kelly Foundation
Everyone at the Kelly Foundation has been touched by the tragedy of suicide. Each case represents an extreme consequence of poor mental health.
We seek to support local people with mental health issues by listening and observing in order to understand and then to provide a bespoke support programme. This will tend to include regular one-to-one sessions with our dedicated team, which includes support workers, clinical psychologist, life coach and mentors. We will be on hand to help lead down an individual pathway to a healthier life.
Find them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4Kelly
A new trustee
I’m Dave Southby, and I’m honoured to be asked to join the Trustee board at The Kelly Foundation in 2025.
I first became aware of The Kelly Foundation through their support of a friend. So I’ve seen first-hand the positive effect this charity has on the lives of its service users and their families.
Anyone can become affected by their mental health. So it’s important to understand the signs and where to go to get support. In my day job I am the founder & Director of a local Financial Planning business. I want to use my experience in business to help grow the charity and connect them with more local businesses.’
Dave is a trained mental health first aider and he often works with anxious clients who are experiencing financial stress. And that in turn has a negative effect on their mental wellbeing.
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