“Thank you for being the charity you are and for helping so many people move forward on their journeys.” - Feedback from CAPITAL Festive Get Together, Dec 23

Happy New Year to you all. We managed to get through the long month of January and now we can look forward to the year ahead. There is lots on the horizon for CAPITAL as always however in this newsletter we are going to have a little look at the things that we’ve been achieving in the last few months.

Staffing update

Quick update on the core team staffing:

• Janice Moth is currently fulfilling a pilot Engagement Manager role. This role supports and line manages the coordinator team, who in turn support our peer teams in the hospitals. The Engagement Manager also is responsible for our engagement of membership and leading the membership strategy.

• Lucy Parsonage is covering an interim role as Coordinator for the Crawley Peer Team (at Langley Green Hospital) and community hubs taking place in the north of West Sussex.

• Coproduction work is now a small team – Sara Shepherd and Tasha Barefield are the Coproduction Leads, supported by Lydia Taylor and Sian Baleswaren. The team are responsible for coordinating our coproduction work through membership of the Lived Experience Advisory Group.

• Ali Golds remains in her pilot role as Business Development Manager, responsible for diversifying our funding strategy and keeping the grants coming in.

On December 15th we held our CAPITAL Festive Get Together celebrating and showcasing our work in 2023, together with fabulous music and amazing food.

The day was made possible through funding from Heads On charity and was an opportunity to focus on the many aspects of CAPITAL’s work in 2023.

Feedback from the day was very positive:

Mental Health Needs Assessment

Also in December we formed a partnership with West Sussex County Council Public Health & Changing Futures to work together to produce two lived experience coproduction events.

Again, this was positively received as we worked with around 80 people as part of the events. We’ll be working further on this in April, when the draft strategy for mental health needs in the county is released.

A Different View

In January CAPITAL colleagues and members joined A Different View artists to celebrate their art at Colonnade House in Worthing. Through the power of using a dynamic range of media these people with lived experience were offered the opportunity to find a way to express themselves and share their journey. The common themes discovered were that this community felt more empowered, creative, and confident. It was a special evening that we were all proud to be a part of as we could see how much people had benefited from being a part of this amazing project. Please enjoy these pictures of the artists and their work.

Trustee away day

Thanks to Heads On funding we have been able to hold an away day for Trustees. We were able to start to revisit our aims, purpose and values and come together as a team.

Since then, we’ve been able to have more discussion and consultation with our membership at the Festive Get Together. We will use this to form a good basis for discussions with PMW - the agency that has selected us to work with on our new branding.

Coproduction

We have another Coproducing Coproduction event coming up on 29 February in Brighton. This builds on the first conference we ran last year with our partners Changing Futures and Possability People.

The extremely popular event is unfortunately already sold out so you cannot register for a place, but we will keep you informed of what happened and update you in future newsletters.

If you’d like further information on our coproduction work or the Lived Experience Advisory Group, please contact either

Sara Shepherd: sara.shepherd@capitalproject.org

or Tasha Barefield: tasha.barefield@capitalproject.org

Funding News

We are delighted to have been chosen by Tesco as one of their charities across their Worthing stores. We have asked for funding for arts and crafts activities and Mental Health First Aid boxes in Meadowfield Hospital. The MHFA boxes are a pilot scheme, and we're really excited to be able to trial this!

Voting will commence in store from Mid January 2024 until the end of March 2024. To vote, you will need to make a purchase within store of any value. You will receive one token per transaction and it's not necessary to purchase a carrier bag in order to receive a token.

Please see below a list of stores taking part in the voting on our project. Feel free to share this list of stores amongst your friends, family and within your community.

3451 Worthing Findon Exp Small unit BN14 0EL

4477 Dolphin Worthng Rd Exp Small unit BN14 8LB

5028 Broadwater Worthing Exp Small unit BN14 9DA

5213 Durrington Exp Small unit BN13 1QY 5370 Rectory Worthing Exp Small unit BN14 7PE

5562 Goring Way Express Small unit BN12 4TY 5672 South Farm Worthing Exp Small unit BN14 7AB

6016 Worthing Chapel Rd Exp Small unit BN11 1EG 6056 West Durrington Extra Large unit BN13 3PB

6405 Worthing Goring Rd Exp Small unit BN12 4AJ

We will be sharing this news across our social media platforms at regular intervals during the time period in order to get the most votes possible, so if you see it - please share it!

Useful Information

• UK Government Domestic Abuse Funding - from 31 January, victims will be able to apply for a one-off payment of up to £500 for essential items such as groceries, nappies or support with new accommodation to help them and their children flee to safety. Victims can also apply for a further one-off payment of up to £2,500 to help secure a sustainable independent future, such as putting down a deposit for rental accommodation. The fund will be delivered via referrals from a network of local frontline services in England and Wales and will initially last until March 2025

• Warm Spaces – Warm spaces are somewhere you can go to keep warm, stay warm and enjoy a little company. In some locations you will also be able to get refreshments, take part in activities and access advice and information about local services. Search Warm Spaces West Sussex to find lists of locations.