Feedback from your community will help us to secure funding for a new mental health and wellbeing service
I am writing to tell you about an exciting new project that we are about to embark on that will improve the mental health and
well-being support services in your community.
We are grass roots community mental health charity that’s based in Burnham on Sea. Since we started in 2011, we have been
on a mission to make therapeutic support accessible to every person. We have continued to grow year on year and we currently
support over 100 individuals every week. Our core service is the provision of community counselling. We also educate through
lived-experience volunteer-led workshops, which are run free of charge at local schools and cover social issues such as domestic
violence, addiction and mental health illness, and we connect the community through free social events such as coffee mornings
and quiz nights.
We are regarded as a valuable community service by local police, education, healthcare, political and faith leaders. In 2018 our
founder, Angie Clarke, received the PCC Pride Award and most recently we have supported other local charities who were
unable to meet the demands of their client caseload through the early stages of the pandemic.
We know that what we do makes a real difference, and we want to help as many people as possible. Our latest project,
therefore, will see an expansion of our existing service into new areas, with a dedicated Mobile Support Unit that will be used
to promote positive mental health awareness and to provide support to rural communities across Somerset.
With this Mobile Support Unit we plan to offer the following free support services:
• Promote positive mental health – travelling to rural communities, providing a safe place where people can get advice
and support, from a qualified counsellor, on anything that is playing on their mind
• Combat loneliness and isolation – people can come inside for a general chit-chat, ask questions, get information and
have a cup of tea and a biscuit
• Promote our remote counselling service and offer guidance on using technology to access our service
• Provide information on social and community events
• Signpost to other services and provide support on gaining referral
• Attend local schools and run educational workshops
We’re still in the planning stages and what we really need get this project off the ground is to the hear the voice of the
communities that are being affected by a lack of adequate support. I would, therefore, really appreciate it if you would be
able to send us a letter, by email or post, showing your support for our project. Every letter of support that we receive will go
a long way to evidencing the need for our proposed service, so your help is incredibly valuable to us.
Below are some suggestions for what you could include in your letter:
- Do you feel that the Mobile Support Unit and free support services are needed in your community?
- Do you feel that your community lacks effective mental health and well-being support services?
- Are there any similar services being offered in your community?
- What locations does your community have that may be suitable for the support unit to be stationed at for a day –
community centre or supermarket carparks etc?
info@somewherehousesomerset.org 01278 780 769 somewherehousesomerset.org
Fax: o1278 795 236 | Company No. 77093355 | Charity No. 1157281 - Do you have any suggestions for how we can expand or adapt the current proposed service offering to better meet
the needs of your community?
Please feel free to forward this request to any local person or organisation that may be interested. If you have any questions,
please get in touch; our contact details are below. Thank you for taking the time to consider our request. I look forwards to
hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
Robert Jones
info@somewherehousesomerset.org
01278 780 769