East Kent Mind Mental Health Crisis Cafe, Ramsgate

Aim

East Kent Mind needs funds for essential building work on an old premise where we can provide mental health training and a crisis cafe

East Kent Mind has been set up by and is affiliated to Mind in Bexley and National MIND in order to provide mental health services throughout East Kent.  Having first established 'Cafe Revival' in Whitstable to provide a safe and inclusive space for all where peer support groups could be developed and campaigns to raise mental health awareness and challenge stigma are a priority, it became clear that there was a need for a more mental health provision in East Kent.  It has taken nearly three years but East Kent Mind has finally been given the go ahead and with the support of Mind in Bexley, Porchlight and the CCG we have been commissioned to deliver Mental Health Training and a Mental Health crisis cafe in Ramsgate.  We needed to make sure that the premises within which we deliver theses services was big enough to have training and therapy rooms and to accommodate a small Revival cafe at the front as a social space open to all.  It also needed to be central so could be easily accessed.  It took a while but we finally found somewhere on Kings Street, only problem is it needs work.  Most of the properties we viewed needed gutting and starting again, the Kings street property, although needing lots of work was perfect in terms of size, layout and potential and the property managers also kindly agreed to do the fire safety work for us as we are a charity.  So here we are 3 months later with the keys!  We have a builder lined up but we need help.  We know how important the crisis cafe will be to local residents, there have been harrowing accounts of lives lost, struggles to access mental health services, and family members are at tipping point as they try to help their loved ones and are finding huge gaps in care provision.  The priority is to provide a safe, bright, welcoming and warm space for our mental health services and we are therefore asking for help towards funding the heating system (there is currently no working system), electrics, flooring, partitioning areas to create confidential therapy spaces, Velux windows for lighting, air conditioning, signage and redecoration throughout .  All funds will be greatly received and will help us to quickly establish our services, our target is £20,000.  Every contribution will be greatly appreciated, should we exceed our target, money will go towards similar remedial work on the building, to help us to establish the Revival cafe and time develop services that the café can also deliver.

East Kent Mind would like to thank you in advance of any donations made that will help us to continue our charitable work.

This project successfully funded on 1st April 2020