Bluebird house is a hospital at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust for young people aged 12-18 years. Young people using the service have complex mental health problems which mean they pose a risk to themselves or others. Bluebird provides care, treatment and support in a safe and secure environment to help encourage the recovery and well-being of young people. Support is provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The use of outdoor space is incredibly important to help improve the physical and mental well being of the young people that reside at the unit. There is increasing evidence to show the therapeutic impact that getting outside can have on an individual. There are three court yards at bluebird house that need renovating to make them more of a user friendly space, all year round.
For two of the court yards, the floor will have to be levelled so the young people can play football/ basketball/ play water games safely. It will also have benches and plants that will give off aromas that will aid in relaxation. As well as outdoor lights and speakers which enhances the sensory experiences to provide a calm and therapeutic outdoor space for all young people.
The last court yard, will be a sensory based garden. Which will be a relaxing space for young people to experience. This will be created with the help of the experienced OT team at Bluebird house to ensure that this space is as therapeutic as possible.
The team at Bluebird house feel so passionately about this project they will be doing some in-house fundraising to obtain funds to help get this project off the ground. We will keep a blog so we can publish the step by step progress of the project.
On Friday, Brighterway were presented with a cheque for £1050 from the #WeLoveMarchwood tote bag campaign. Having exceeded £2000 in total raised from the bags project, Marchwood Council were delighted to present cheques for £1050 to Jan Hayter from the Waterside Foodbank and Ian Hynd from Brighterway this morning.
The We Love Marchwood team commented ‘Thank you to everyone who has supported this cause by purchasing a bag or a raffle ticket. Every penny of the money you spent has gone to help people in our local area.’
‘Thank you to Luke Mostran (Noodles & Doodles) for providing the fantastic artwork, and for all of the community volunteers involved in making this happen.’
‘Finally, thank you to the sponsors Welcome Stores (Co-op), Southampton FC and New Forest Care, whose contributions meant that all money from the sale of the bags was able to be donated to our charities. Special thanks to Richard Dance for selling the bags in store and providing the raffle prize.’
If you would like to get your hands on a bag, they’re still for sale at Welcome Stores (Co-op) in Marchwood for £5 each.
MadeinHere: Southampton
MadeinHere Southampton sell local products that are made in Southampton, the New Forest, Hampshire, England.
From lip balms to hand creams, chocolates to conserves, greeting cards to coasters – they’re proud of their localness. And because they love local, all packaging is sourced from UK manufacturers (except jam jars), so labels, stickers, tape, envelopes, tissue paper and bags: everything’s sustainable, often biodegradable.
Throughout Mental Health awareness month, they were donating £2 to Brighterway for every lip therapy or hand therapy gift set. At the end of June, we received a donation of £102 – thank you MadeinHere Southampton!
In response to our Brighterway COVID-19 appeal, we have had an influx of people creating their own fundraising events.
We spoke to a few of our amazing fundraisers to find out more about their fundraising event and why they chose to fundraise for Brighterway.
Michael North
Michael is completing 100 laps of his garden a day.
He tells us, ‘well as a Disabled Naval Veteran, who has some other connected problems I have like many others been told to stay at home. So confronted with that I knew that I needed to keep as fit as possible, so as I walk very slowly, with the aid of two walking sticks I planned a route around our quite small garden, which I called a lap, and borne from that promised myself to do a 100 laps a day.
Well some 76 days later I have, with the aid of a “following breeze” and my sticks completed 7,600 laps which equates to about 220,400 steps (or so my aching knees tell me).
So while doing this, and thinking of the tremendous efforts made by “Major Tom” my mind was drawn to what could I do for a Charity which is close to my heart. (Needless to say I could never emulate his great effort) but I could make a contribution.
The Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust is very close to my heart, and their dedicated, and professional role delivering Mental Health care within Hampshire is of paramount importance to all who have need of their caring service.
So that was it then. I would try to raise some much needed Financial support to help them and their treasured Staff sustain, and where needed add value to the Professional service that they deliver to us the service user.
I then thought that a “Penny a Step”would not be too much to ask. So with that in mind I set my target at 250,000 steps, or £2500, so please if you can help on my journey to give something back to those who give us so much freely,and willingly,.
Then please go to my “ Just Giving” page and look for Michael’s walking for “Mental Health, and the Southern Health NHS Trust”.
May I say thank you for any support you may give to my charity cause, because I know it will be faithfully applied by those who serve our needs within the NHS.’
Lucy has been creating knitted ‘nurses and friends’ for her colleagues at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.
She has smashed her original target of £50 and has now raised nearly £400!
She says, ‘If you would like one of my knitted nurses please make a donation to my page and send me your address. Minimum donation of £5 each please. I estimate postage to be approx £3 so if you would like to add this to your donation that would be great.
All donations will go to my colleagues at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust who are working on the frontline at this time in the fight against Coronavirus.
I have thoroughly enjoyed knitting these but please note I am not an expert so there may be flaws.’
Morgan is raising money for Brighterway by doing press ups each day, he’s currently on day 26 and hopes to make it to day 100!
He says ‘ I am raising money on your behalf due to all of the services NHS staff, COVID-19 support-staff and hospital staff are doing with the current outgoing pandemic. I chose to raise money in this way as I feel that by doing this I am giving my thanks back to the NHS for all the amazing work you and they are doing as a team to help others cope during these tough times’
I do also have a few friends who work in care teams, I respect their work highly too so this is my way of saying thank you.
Brighterway are proud to be one of the chosen charities for the #WeLoveMarchwood campaign. Welcome Marchwood (Co-op) are selling reusable cotton shopping bags for £5 each, with the proceeds being split evenly between Brighterway and Waterside Food bank.
The bags were designed by Luke Mostran, and supported financially by Southampton Football Club, New Forest Care, Welcome Stores (Co-op) and private donors. Around 600 bags were created, and they are on sale exclusively at Welcome Marchwood (Co-op).
Please consider purchasing a #WeLoveMarchwood shopping bag the next time you visit Welcome Marchwood (Co-Op) instead of a plastic one (they are Fairtrade, eco-friendly and sustainably sourced).
And don’t forget to tag us in the photos of your fabulous new bag!
Meet our fundraisers!
In response to our Brighterway COVID-19 appeal, we have had an influx of people creating their own fundraising events.
We spoke to a few of our amazing fundraisers to find out more about their fundraising event and why they chose to fundraise for Brighterway.
Verity-Grace
Firstly, we got in touch with Verity to get some more information about her fundraising. Verity shaved her head at the beginning of April and has currently raised over £550.
She says ‘In this current situation I really wanted to do something to help. The NHS staff have been working tirelessly to keep us safe and really deserve our support. I also hope that in shaving my head on a live video feed, it will bring some light and laughter during these dark times.’
We think Verity looks amazing both before & after!
Next we spoke with Adam to see how his fundraising was getting on, he is donating £1 for every 1k he runs, and so far he has donated over £40.
He stated ‘I’m just an ordinary, 23 year old finance student, who wants to help raise as much money as I can, even if it is only a little, just to thank all the front-line staff for being amazing hero’s during this pandemic! I love my fitness and had already ran or cycled over 100k during lockdown so I decided why not donate £1 for every km I run and, have so far ran 40km, and donated just over £40. As the universities are closed, the furlough payments I’m receiving from my job are basically pointless so I’d rather the money go to people who deserve it than myself!’
Lucy from London combined her fundraising with something she loves – yoga! She wanted to show admiration and fundraise for the NHS by creating a new yoga challenge. The challenge consists of doing 3 yoga poses, donate £3 and send to 3 friends.
“My name is Lucy and I have been teaching Yoga in London for the last twenty years. I have huge admiration for the NHS – their work has been selfless & tireless over the last months, putting the needs of the nation before their own and making huge sacrifices within their own lives and families. This and all the other thousands of wonderful fundraising efforts currently taking place serve in some small way to show you how incredibly grateful we all are – please know that in your darkest moments and in the times when you have to dig deeper than you ever have had reason to do before, that we are remembering and praying for you all. We are grateful beyond measure.”
Jessica took on a challenge of drawing for 24 hours. Her original target was to raise £100 but she absolutely smashed it by raising over £250! Michelle, Jessica’s mum, is very proud of her.
‘Jessica thought of this all by herself and wanted to do whatever she could to help.’
Leo is running 2 miles a day for 26 days and he said he is doing it to ‘raise money for the NHS for brighterway because I want to help as much as I can
Debbie, Leo’s mum, described him as a ‘wonderful teenager’ saying ‘in the past he has raised money running for cancer charity’s and Action For Children. We all do our bit, and as his Dad runs a lot of marathons etc.. Leo is following in his footsteps.’
Inspired by Captain Tom, Lewis, 13, is running 2.5 miles every day in May. Lewis is missing his football team during lockdown and started running to keep fit. ‘I decided that I wanted to make a difference in this pandemic and support the NHS by saying a HUGE THANKYOU to everyone keeping us so safe every day’
6 days in so far and he’s absolutely smashing it, completing 2.5 miles as quickly as 21 minutes! He has also managed to raise near his target of £500 only a week into it.
Connor completed a half-marathon in 1hour, 59 minutes and 49 seconds and has raised nearly £1000. When asked why he chose to run for Brighterway he said ‘I love making a difference to other people’s lives’. The money raised will be going towards care packages, wellness support, healthy food and refreshments.
We will also direct funds towards areas of greatest need as identified by staff across Southern Health, over and above what the NHS is already committed to providing. If you wish to donate, please click the link below.
We’ve had lots of generous offers of support for our amazing staff at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. In response, we’ve set up a dedicated COVID-19 page on JustGiving.
During this difficult time we’ve set up the campaign to raise money to say thank you to the front-line staff that are working around the clock, putting their lives at risk and putting patients first.
Your donations will go towards helping us support them through care packages, wellness support, healthy food and refreshments.
We will also direct funds towards areas of greatest need as identified by staff across Southern Health, over and above what the NHS is already committed to providing.
We cannot thank you enough for any donation made, however large or small, it will make a lasting difference to our patients, service users and staff at this time.
Fundraising
Would you like to do your bit to raise funds for Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust? We’ve dedicated a whole page to fundraising at home where we share how you can get involved.
In collaboration with the New Forest National Park Authority (NFNPA) the grassland behind the Sterne buildings at Tatchbury Mount will be re-instated as meadow land.
The area is rich with wildlife, it currently includes 5 ponds, a bee’s hive and many different species of insects. We are hoping to protect and encourage more wild life with this new project.
It will also be used as a calming area for staff and service users to take some time out and relax, encouraging staff to spend their lunches walking outside, rather than staying at their desks. As pictured below, the area is currently inaccessible due to the overgrown shrubs and the wooden walkway is slippery which currently poses as a health and safety risk.
A new grassland walk will feature, extending the already popular ‘Trim Trail’. NFNPA will be working alongside some of the people we support on site at Tatchbury to design markers to direct and illustrate the trail with poetry, words of encouragement, drawings and sculptures.
The project will be continuing throughout the summer with a target completion date of autumn 2021. Keep an eye on the website to get the latest updates!
“This is such an exciting project involving all who are supported on the Tatchbury site and staff & volunteers. Over the next twelve months we will see the meadow develop and become an area of beauty, serenity & healing”
Dominic Lodge – Community Development Lead
Turn Small Change Into Big Change
Brighterway are pleased to announce that we have signed up to the ‘Pennies From Heaven’ scheme. The scheme enables staff to make donations to the charity every month from their salary without lifting a finger. Setting it up can take under a minute, but the results could make a world of difference.
‘I couldn’t believe how easy it was to sign up, it took me less than a minute and I’m no computer expert! It’s rewarding knowing that the pennies from my pay will make a difference. I’m hoping staff can take 30 seconds out of their day to do the same’ – Ian Hynd, Head of Brighterway Charity
The scheme works by taking just the pennies from your monthly pay and donating them to the charity. For example, if you earned £850.34 last month the charity would collect the 34p. The most you can ever give is 99p every time you are paid – equalling only £11.88 a year!
It’s quick and easy to do, just make sure you select
Southern Health and have your assignment number to hand.
Brighterway are proud to be one of the chosen charities for the #WeLoveMarchwood campaign. Welcome Marchwood (Co-op) are selling reusable cotton shopping bags for £5 each, with the proceeds being split evenly between Brighterway and Waterside Food bank.
During this difficult time we’ve set up the campaign to raise money to say thank you to the front-line staff that are working around the clock, putting their lives at risk and putting patients first.
