The story so far…
We have just celebrated our one-year anniversary of Promoting Independence. Over this time, we have worked with 25 customers living in Residential Care, and supported 10 customers to move out and live independently.
Our programme is built on nine months in placement (Residential Care) support to enable the customer to be ready to live independently, and then we support the customer for two years after they have moved out.
We currently have capacity for new referrals, and would love to hear from home managers, residents in residential care, Community Mental Health teams, and so on, if they are supporting anyone who has an aspiration to live more independently.
Please email our team or download an expression of interest form to get in touch.
“I feel stronger mentally. I’ve been able to spend more quality time with my daughter and grandchildren. I have grown in confidence and self-esteem.”
Jill recently told us all about her move to independent living, and how she’s settling in to her new home.
Here’s what our customers have been up to recently…
Brett has been enjoying regular cooking sessions with his Health and Wellbeing Coach. They focus on budgeting, going out and buying the ingredients from the local supermarket and then cooking a home made meal.
Here’s Sally with a brilliant collage she’s made about all the things she’ll be able to do to look after her new home, and about how she’ll live her life.
She is also keen to write a poem to go in our next update, so watch this space.
On a sunny day in September, Euclid, John and Phillip chose to take a day trip to Bakewell to celebrate 6 months of independent living. For Euclid, this was his first ever visit to Bakewell, but for Phillip it was a trip down memory lane – he showed us around all his favourite spots. Fish and chips and ice creams were enjoyed by all!
Amina thoroughly enjoyed going swimming – it was her first time in a pool in years. She said:
“I’ve absolutely loved coming swimming today, because it’s something I always used to love when I was younger.”
Our response to the Covid-19 outbreak
Our customers have demonstrated phenomenal resolve, strength and commitment to their independent living goals. Our team has remained fully operational throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, supporting customers by phone and video, and in July we began the return to Covid-19 safe face-to-face working with our customers.
The whole team have enjoyed the opportunity to regularly see and engage with our customers once again out in the community on their journey to independence.
Meet the Promoting Independence team
We’d like to introduce you to some of our brilliant team. Meet Amy and Yvonne!
Amy Cawood
Health & Wellbeing Coach
I am a BACP registered Integrative Psychotherapist, specialising in creative therapies and relational work. I’ve worked at South Yorkshire Housing Associaiton for 3 years across a variety of mental health projects. My two biggest passions are travelling and horticulture, having already visited 29 countries and collected 52 house plants!
Yvonne Goddard
Keyworker
I have worked in the field of mental health from the age of 18. I worked at Middlewood Hospital during the ’80s and ’90s and saw the new change in mental health nursing on wards to care in the community.
I joined South Yorkshire Housing Association in 1994 to work at the Lister Project, a residential mental health care unit.
In 2010 I joined the Beaufort Project, and continued working there until September 2019 when I started my new role as a Housing Keyworker with The Promoting Independence project.
