Creating movement

It is done!!!

Today we posted off our application to convert from a Limited Company to a Community Interest Company, changing our legal entity in the UK.  A Community Interest Company or CIC, is essentially a smaller version of a regular charity, aimed at enabling smaller social enterprises/not-for-profits to have a legal entity and be able to use their profits for the public good…which is what we hope to do!!

Once this conversion is complete this will enable us to open up specific bank accounts and apply for specific funding that is only open to CIC’s, charities and non-government organisations.  The estimated response time is 4 weeks so WATCH THIS SPACE!!
As part of the process, we had to list and describe, in a broad sense, what we hope our key activities to be.  We agreed on 4 key areas to be:

• Raise awareness, promote and educate professionals and young people about mental health across Europe.
• To share best practice and improve collaboration amongst professionals working with young people in the medical, social and voluntary sectors.
• To provide training and consultation to professionals that work with young people across Europe on programs, services and projects related to mental health.
• To ensure that all of the work that we develop and deliver, is done so co-productively with young people.

These can be changed in the future, through the right process, if there is ever a shift in our approach, but we felt this covers the primary areas of work that we want to achieve once set up as an organisation.

In other news….

• We are currently writing and applying to deliver workshops and presentations at conferences next year (if you know of any, or think we would be suitable for one your running, get in touch);
• Developing areas of our ‘branding’;
• Starting our piece of work on mental health helplines for young people across Europe, collaborating with Mental Health Europe, for them to develop a report and map all these services early next year (please get in touch with any numbers and organisations for us to add to our list).
• Continuing to bring together our #mentalstories – please get in touch if you’d like to write, video, draw for us, sharing your experience of youth mental health services in your country. More coming soon this month.

And how are we in ourselves?? It’s been a difficult past few weeks for all of us for an array of different reasons, both mental and practical, but we are pulling together to keep this work moving forward, to improve mental health promotion and prevent the impact of mental illness on young people.

If you think you can help in any way, get in touch!

Stay healthy, mentally,

Nick