Supporters, Clients, Service Users, PINners, Friends,
It’s the end of the year and in typical PoetsIN fashion, it wouldn’t be right to leave this year behind without sharing some words with you all. We know it’s not quite the end of the month, but today is our last working day for the year. Don’t worry, we won’t leave you without support; we’ll talk more about that further down.
2020 was a year of pain, uncertainty, loss, and heartbreak. 2021 has been much the same, but we want to take a moment to celebrate the resilience of the world. Despite everything that is going on in the world, we have carried on, we have shared kindness and support as a world, and continue to hold hope for better times.
Our Year in Review
PoetsIN has helped thousands of people who are struggling with their mental health this year alone, and will continue to do so long after this year ends. Children, young people, and adults have all benefitted from our support services; from our Creative Mental Health Programme™ to our Wellbeing Workshop™, Buddy Service™, and our Creative Mental Health Community™. We’ve spent 365 days listening to people in our buddy services, in our creative community, and whilst we hear stories of pain and struggle, we also hear stories of strength, triumph, courage, and recovery. We are inspired personally by the strength and courage we witness, and our own lives are richer for it.
When we started PoetsIN, we never realised what a challenge running a charity would be. We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but we didn’t account for our imposter syndrome or for the constant weight of responsibility. This last year has been one gigantic year for us; we’ve provided NHS support (a year ten goal… smashed), we’ve supported teams at Amazon, run a charity golf day, tweaked our referral and triage process to make it less intimidating and clinical, designed incredible wellbeing reports for service users who complete our programme, added new team members to support the triage process, promoted two of the team, trained 90% of staff in Mental Health First Aid, gained 4 NVQ’s in safeguarding, put together packages for businesses to help with wellbeing in the workplace, begun work on a new contract with Live Well Kent, supported two teams at the Samaritans Herts and Cambridgeshire, and have started our due diligence process for our programme delivery for the Probation Service, starting in January; all whilst providing 24/7 support through our creative community, and 9am-10pm support 7 days a week through our buddy service, and running multiple programmes and Wellbeing Workshops each week.
Is the weight of that responsibility worth it? Yes. Even on a bad mental health day? 100% yes. Even on a Sunday? Still yes.
Delivering an exemplary service to our clients/service users is of utmost importance to us; when you are at your most vulnerable, you want to feel heard, respected, and cared for. We are proud that 100% of our clients rated their experience as positive, with 100% rating our service as good or excellent. We hope that we continue to achieve that for those who need our help and will work our little socks off to do so. It doesn’t stop there, in 2022 we will continue to learn and hone our knowledge to better service those we support. We genuinely care about each and every person we cross paths with and want to express our gratitude to be able to do the work we do.
Speaking of Gratitude
There are so many individuals we want to thank, but for fear of missing someone out, we will say this… thank you to everyone who has donated, supported, used our services, talked to others about us, attended our events, emailed us, called us, and engaged with us on social media.
Thank you to all of our amazing ambassadors and patrons.
Thank you to all of the organisations and people that have generously donated items for raffles, sponsored events, and those who have used our services for their staff.
Thank you to our incredible Creative Mental Health Community for your love, understanding, and kindness to each other. You are amazing.
We wouldn’t be who we are without our incredible team. To those who have been with us for years, to those who have only joined us recently – your dedication, passion, and diligence is admirable. We are inspired by you. You drive us to keep going, to work harder and smarter, to keep going even on those days where nothing seems to go right. Your strength and courage as a group of individuals who all have lived experience of mental illness is heartwarming. Thank you all for being the best team, ever. Most importantly, thank you for being you.
And Finally…
Whilst we are taking a short break to rest and practice some much needed self-care, our Buddy Service and Online Community will still be active.
If you need further support during a crisis, please take a look at the following image and utilise the support there:
We know Christmas can be incredibly difficult for those struggle with mental ill-health, but want to wish you a safe and warm holiday, from all of us at PoetsIN.
A blog from our Co-founders
Supporters, Clients, Service Users, PINners, Friends,
It’s the end of the year and in typical PoetsIN fashion, it wouldn’t be right to leave this year behind without sharing some words with you all. We know it’s not quite the end of the month, but today is our last working day for the year. Don’t worry, we won’t leave you without support; we’ll talk more about that further down.
2020 was a year of pain, uncertainty, loss, and heartbreak. 2021 has been much the same, but we want to take a moment to celebrate the resilience of the world. Despite everything that is going on in the world, we have carried on, we have shared kindness and support as a world, and continue to hold hope for better times.
Our Year in Review
PoetsIN has helped thousands of people who are struggling with their mental health this year alone, and will continue to do so long after this year ends. Children, young people, and adults have all benefitted from our support services; from our Creative Mental Health Programme™ to our Wellbeing Workshop™, Buddy Service™, and our Creative Mental Health Community™. We’ve spent 365 days listening to people in our buddy services, in our creative community, and whilst we hear stories of pain and struggle, we also hear stories of strength, triumph, courage, and recovery. We are inspired personally by the strength and courage we witness, and our own lives are richer for it.
When we started PoetsIN, we never realised what a challenge running a charity would be. We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but we didn’t account for our imposter syndrome or for the constant weight of responsibility. This last year has been one gigantic year for us; we’ve provided NHS support (a year ten goal… smashed), we’ve supported teams at Amazon, run a charity golf day, tweaked our referral and triage process to make it less intimidating and clinical, designed incredible wellbeing reports for service users who complete our programme, added new team members to support the triage process, promoted two of the team, trained 90% of staff in Mental Health First Aid, gained 4 NVQ’s in safeguarding, put together packages for businesses to help with wellbeing in the workplace, begun work on a new contract with Live Well Kent, supported two teams at the Samaritans Herts and Cambridgeshire, and have started our due diligence process for our programme delivery for the Probation Service, starting in January; all whilst providing 24/7 support through our creative community, and 9am-10pm support 7 days a week through our buddy service, and running multiple programmes and Wellbeing Workshops each week.
Delivering an exemplary service to our clients/service users is of utmost importance to us; when you are at your most vulnerable, you want to feel heard, respected, and cared for. We are proud that 100% of our clients rated their experience as positive, with 100% rating our service as good or excellent. We hope that we continue to achieve that for those who need our help and will work our little socks off to do so. It doesn’t stop there, in 2022 we will continue to learn and hone our knowledge to better service those we support. We genuinely care about each and every person we cross paths with and want to express our gratitude to be able to do the work we do.
Speaking of Gratitude
There are so many individuals we want to thank, but for fear of missing someone out, we will say this… thank you to everyone who has donated, supported, used our services, talked to others about us, attended our events, emailed us, called us, and engaged with us on social media.
Thank you to all of our amazing ambassadors and patrons.
Thank you to all of the organisations and people that have generously donated items for raffles, sponsored events, and those who have used our services for their staff.
Thank you to our incredible Creative Mental Health Community for your love, understanding, and kindness to each other. You are amazing.
We wouldn’t be who we are without our incredible team. To those who have been with us for years, to those who have only joined us recently – your dedication, passion, and diligence is admirable. We are inspired by you. You drive us to keep going, to work harder and smarter, to keep going even on those days where nothing seems to go right. Your strength and courage as a group of individuals who all have lived experience of mental illness is heartwarming. Thank you all for being the best team, ever. Most importantly, thank you for being you.
And Finally…
Whilst we are taking a short break to rest and practice some much needed self-care, our Buddy Service and Online Community will still be active.
If you need further support during a crisis, please take a look at the following image and utilise the support there:
We know Christmas can be incredibly difficult for those struggle with mental ill-health, but want to wish you a safe and warm holiday, from all of us at PoetsIN.
Until January,
Sammie & Paul.
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