CEO News

The last month has been pretty hectic!

We’ve been running at slightly reduced capacity so that’s meant we’re all quite busy, but then, that seems always to be the case!

The team have managed to keep our hospital peers supported and have supported volunteers who are running our monthly Patient ViewPoint sessions for the hospitals. We always are looking for volunteers for Patient Viewpoint. If you are interested, please contact us for more information. We’d be particularly keen to hear from you if you were interested in covering Meadowfield in Worthing.

We’re still recruiting! We’ve looking for bank peers to cover our regular team during periods of sickness or annual leave. These are relief casual roles for all three hospital sites. For more information visit: https://www.capitalproject.org/bank-peer-support-workers

We were informed this month that we were successful in gaining funding for a new arts project called A Different View. We will be running this with Recovery Partners. It will bring a series of workshops to Crawley and Littlehampton and culminate in an exhibition at an art gallery coproduced by participants. Please see the separate flyer for more details and how to apply.

My work this month has concentrated on working on funding bids and working with

commissioners to continue existing funding, and all the usual Pathfinder meetings. We’re also continuing links with the Participation Team at SPFT. I’ve also been actively involved in supporting our coproduction work. I’m pleased to announce that we have continued funding for our coproduction work.

Looking ahead, with Ali Golds joining CAPITAL as Business Development Manager, a new role leading on new funding applications, this is an exciting moment for us. We’re also working together with members to develop and review our membership structure. There will be focus groups looking at a variety of aspects that members have already highlighted. I look forward to seeing how this work develops - redefining what being a CAPITAL member means. That’s another very exciting moment!

Also later in May, I’m really looking forward to being at Chichester Pride, supporting CAPTIALs presence there. I’m excited because this will see us getting out and about again and linking with the local community.

Lastly, we are working together with United Response to support Mental Health Awareness Week (15-19 May). We’ll be running crafts, mindfulness and crochet for wellbeing during this week.

Learning and Development:

Membership Engagement

As part of the ‘25 and Up’ project, I will be starting to ring around all our lovely members we haven’t spoken to in a while. My number will show up on mobile phones as 07522227945. If you do not want to receive a call, you can let us know by phoning the office on 01243 869662 or email me at helen.hayward@capitalproject.org. I really look forward to speaking to many of you soon.

CAPITAL Focus Group

Our newly formed Focus Group – Online and Face to Face commenced at the end of April.

The groups were lively and great initial planning strides were made. If you would like to be involved with shaping our charity, please do get in touch. We would very much appreciate your knowledge, experience and passion!

The Focus Group asked if you would help them make some decisions about which priorities they should be working on first. I have therefore put together a very short survey and we would really appreciate you taking five minutes to complete. We will send out the link in the electronic email but for those that receive their mailshot via the post, the link is

https://forms.office.com/e/WyZbTHnZ7J

If you cannot complete online but would like to share your thoughts, please ring Helen (number below) and she will add your answers directly onto the survey form.

Crochet Buddies for Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW)

As part of Mental Health Awareness week, we will be running a crochet for Wellbeing workshop. The purpose is to teach the basics of the craft and the reasons why it is so beneficial to mental wellbeing, especially anxiety (which is this year’s theme for MHAW).

We are looking for some confident crocheters to buddy up with individuals as they learn to crochet in this one off, 3-hour workshop...interested, then please do get in touch. Ps.

We are still looking for donations of white/cream, red, green and black yarn, some size 4mm, 4.5mm and 5mm crochet hooks and darning needles. Please do have a rummage and see if you can offload some of your spare stash. If you would like to attend the group to learn a new skill, please contact Helen to book your place – numbers are limited.

CAPITAL Art and Craft Group – Due to the 3 Bank Holidays in May, folks attending have decided to change their meeting day to Wednesday for all of May. For Mental Health Awareness Week 15th – 21st May, we are planning a one-off creative session based on this year’s theme of Anxiety. It would be great to have you join us.

Chichester Pride

We are delighted to be taking part in this year’s Chichester Pride event. We will be

spreading the word about CAPITAL, sharing the benefits of peer support and raising awareness about local mental health support. We will hopefully be finding new individuals to join us as members, volunteers and peer workers. We are looking for more volunteers to help out on the day or to help prepare, we would love to hear from any of you but especially those from our membership who are part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Many thanks and kindest regards, Helen

Mobile: 07522 227945

Email: helen.hayward@capitalproject.org

Co-production Lead:

Temporary arrangements continue – thanks to Possability People and Changing Futures. SCALE (Sussex Coproduction and Lived Experience) meets monthly. Please visit our website if you would like to join the SCALE network. As CAPITAL Project Trust hosts the work, you will need to join the network – it is separate from CAPITAL membership.

If you need any immediate support with accessing the coproduction team please get in touch via the dedicated email: coproduction@capitalproject.org.

For more information about coproduction and to become a SCALE member, see:

https://www.capitalproject.org/scale-network

Membership News:

Capital are on the hunt for new Trustees – Please have a read through the leaflet

enclosed/attached and get in touch if you think you’d like to become one.

Exciting Event happening in Crawley:

Crawley Community Mental Health Transformation Event Tickets, Thu 25 May 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

Its building on workshops from last year, which our SCALE (coproduction) network was involved in, piloting and bringing about change to local mental health services.

Peer Support in Mental Health Course

In July, we are aiming to bring back our Level 4 course, accredited by Middlesex University.

If you want to put your name down for early information when its ready, please email: Kirsty.potter@capitalproject.org