Community fund news: York Mind
As part of our ethical policy, Castlegate IT has a Community Fund pot, for which our staff nominate and vote on recipients each quarter. At the end of 2016 our staff selected York Mind to receive the latest donation.
York Mind provide support and advocacy for people in the York area experiencing poor mental health. Provision for mental health care in York is under-resourced and struggling to cope, famously symbolised by the sudden closure of Bootham Park in September 2015 with five days’ notice. Even this week, York Outer MP Julian Sturdy raised in Parliament the issue of children in York waiting up to nine months for mental health assessment. It is, sadly, not unrepresentative of the picture across the UK.
In this context, the work done by York Mind is more important than ever. As well as providing services to those suffering or recovering from mental ill health, and the fundraising that supports this, they also do a lot of training, outreach and advocacy work aimed at destigmatising poor mental health. Unsurprisingly, given the state of public provision for mental health, their services are regularly oversubscribed.
York Mind is the first recipient of the community pot that is also a client of Castlegate IT. Our association with them goes back to before their formation as we worked with Our Celebration, one of the two organisations whose merger in 2011 formed York Mind. We built the current yorkmind.org.uk website back in 2012 and worked with them on a few projects since.
None of us should take our mental health for granted. Visit the York Mind website to find out how you could volunteer or fundraise for York Mind, or benefit from their services and advice.
