Connecting Communities is a wide-ranging project to support people living with mental health challenges in Tower Hamlets. The overall goal is to increase levels of wellbeing and recovery. Working with the diverse communities of the borough, we help people find their strengths and take control of their own journey.
The Connecting Communities services
These services are available to all Tower Hamlets residents.
- Navigation to link people to the right support at the right time.
- Welfare and housing experts in-house, accessed through the navigation service.
- One-to-one mental health support, helping people build a stable, happy life in their community.
- Recovery and wellbeing groups and activities, helping people make connections, be active and enjoy life, and providing safe spaces for marginalised groups.
- Safe Space café, the heart of our centre, providing a warm welcome and a pleasant space to be.
- Activate Café, a twice-monthly drop-in event for people in all stages of recovery.
The right support at the right time
One of the key goals of the project is to increase understanding of and access to local resources – including health, social care and community services.
We provide support for key issues that affect mental health, including income and benefits, employment and housing. Where we don’t provide direct support, the Navigation team connect people with the services they need from across the borough.
Person-centred and empowering
To support each person’s recovery, we focus on their skills, abilities and knowledge and those of their family, friends and communities. We help them come to a place where they can manage their own mental health condition, in their own way, with the support in place to lead an independent and fulfilling life.
Combatting loneliness and isolation
A sense of community is key to many people’s recovery. We connect people to one another, both within our service and outside, helping them make the personal connections that will support them on their journey. At their own pace, they have opportunities to take an active part in our community, whether it’s attending more groups, spending time in the café or volunteering their time to support others.
Coproduction and peer leadership
Coproduction is central to our service. Most of our recovery groups are run by peer leaders – people with lived experience of mental health who have undergone our peer leadership training programme. They design and implement their group with support from staff.
We also have a coproduction committee made up of peer leaders and other service users, which makes decisions such as which activities to fund and what sessions to include at Activate Café.
Promoting physical health
Our service supports people to take control of their physical health. We promote healthy lifestyle choices such a smoking cessation, alcohol awareness and weight management with sessions at our Activate Café events. Our wellbeing groups include physical activities from cycling to swimming to chair-based exercise. And most importantly we help people become part of their community, which has all-round wellbeing effects.
Get in touch
To find out more about Connecting Communities, call 020 7510 1081 or email connecting.communities@mindthnr.org.uk.