Wellbeing, Community & Fairtrade

Mental Health First Aid Training

This week together with members of our Leadership Team, I attended a Mental Health First Aid training course which was an invaluable introduction to mental health issues. Mental health is a priority for the Society and the course was given by Paul Thompson from our community partner Springfield Mind. The course covered factors affecting mental health, stigma, beginning a conversation about the issues and looking after your own mental health.

 

Our Leadership Team on their Mental Health First Aid training course

1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem during their lifetime and Paul was one of them. In the Summer of 2015, he was sectioned in a mental health hospital and diagnosed with clinical depression. A sympathetic GP, good social worker and doing a 5-day course on Managing Depression run by Mind helped Paul to recover. He now volunteers full-time for Mind and delivers courses so others can learn from his experiences. You can read more about his incredibly moving story on Springfield Mind's website here. 

 

Support is always available and if you feel you need to speak to someone about any mental health issue there are a range of options:

• Our dedicated EAP helpline - click here

• Our HR Advice Line - 0845 099 6000

• Speak in Confidence - click here

 

There will be a more in-depth article on what we are doing to tackle mental health on Colleagues Connect next week.

Learning and Development Catalogue & Community Funding Launched

This week has also seen two very important announcements regarding colleague development and community engagement, both key priorities for the Society. We have launched our new Learning and Development Catalogue which provides colleagues with an exciting range of learning opportunities for each stage of their career from Inductions to our Trading Places programme. If you have not already done so, I really encourage you to look at the catalogue here on Colleagues Connect and you can find out more about the opportunities on offer on the Learning & Development page here.

 

We have also launched the latest round of our Community Fund enabling community groups to apply for grants up to £2000. Last year we gave over £260,000 to over 500 good causes. This year we are focusing on four key priorities:

• Reducing single-use plastics / environmental groups

• Supporting vulnerable people into employment

• Food poverty/food sharing

• Supporting mental health and wellbeing

 

If you are part of an organisation or community group that could benefit from funding then please ask them to apply. The Community Fund is open for applications until 15th February 2019, click here to find out more.

Welcoming our Childcare Colleagues

Also this week our childcare group and I welcomed eight overseas colleagues from Spain, Portugal and Italy to our head office for their induction before they begin their Senior Practitioner roles in our Oxford, Maidenhead and London nurseries.  Across all our nurseries we want to create an inclusive community so all our colleagues have name badges with flags on representing the different languages that they speak. This is particularly beneficial where we have a large number of children speaking English as a second language, for example, we have a lot of Spanish children in our Oxford nurseries. I’m also pleased to announce that the EU settlement fee post-Brexit has now been abolished but at this time of continuing uncertainty, we will continue to support our EU colleagues.

 

From left to right: Claudia Pereira, Nuria Esteve, Bev Capewell (People Development Manager), Noelia Lopez, Patricia Marcos, Estefania Merino, Victoria Sanchez & Emma Casado

 

Our Ethical Competition Prizewinner - Jennie Simpson

Finally, I’m very pleased to report that the winner of our Ethical Competition of a Lifetime, Jennie Simpson, has now returned safely from her Fairtrade trip to Guatemala in Central America. Here she experienced first-hand where our Fairtrade coffee is grown, visited a co-operative farm and saw the difference that the Fairtrade premium makes to farmers and their families living there. This included seeing a community health clinic which has transformed the lives of the local community and a new warehouse and distribution system, which has helped to increase production. Afterwards, she went on a ‘Mayan Adventure’ courtesy of our travel partner G Adventures, taking in 3 countries in 12 days – Guatemala, Belize and Mexico! Jennie will be coming into the office to tell colleagues about her incredible trip and will also be doing a variety of events during Fairtrade Fortnight this year which takes place from 25 February to 10 March.

 Jennie (left) visiting the El Pensativo co-operative coffee farm

I hope you have enjoyed reading this week's blog, please let me know if you have any thoughts on what I've been up to.  If you want to get in touch it's easy, just sign in and comment below. I hope you all have a great week and I look forward to sharing more with you next Friday.