Search is on for new corporate sponsors in 2024

A mental health charity offering support to families whose children are struggling with their mental health has seen a huge take-up of their services.

Holding Space is the only East Sussex charity offering Parent Peer Work – parents with real-life experience always on hand to support mums and dads with children struggling with mental health issues.

The charity has helped over 800 parents, carers and young people through activities such as low-cost counselling, yoga sessions, coffee mornings and education programmes.

Chief Executive Hansa Raja explained that the best advice and guidance always came from parents who had lived through the trauma and pain of a child in distress.

“Parents with lived experience can share a journey and understanding with the people we support,” Hansa said. “It is empowering to know that someone understands and ‘gets it’.  We help them get their voice heard and listened to.”

Hansa said that latest statistics indicated an incredible one in four children struggle with their mental health, but the prospect of NHS support is currently standing at two to three years.

“This is just not good enough,” she said. “Early intervention and support are vital. We cannot wait until children reach a crisis point. We need proper Government support and an NHS and social services that receives the funding it needs.”

Holding Space finds itself having to rely on fundraising, grant applications and corporate support. “My team of volunteers and I are spending a significant amount of time exploring ways of making ends meet. We are hugely grateful to our corporate sponsors and I would urge other Sussex businesses to consider adopting us as their charity in 2024,” Hansa said.

Holding Space was founded by Hansa in Eastbourne in 2019 following her own journey trying to cope with a mentally ill child and finding no support. The charity provides a safe space for families to come together. It believes that no parent should struggle alone when caring for a child and that the voice of the parent is paramount.

Services offered include:

• Face-face monthly parent coffee mornings Face-face monthly parent coffee mornings and evenings with invited speakers

• Online parent coffee evenings

• 1:1 Telephone/ wellbeing support to parents/carers undertaken by parent peer support workers.

• 1:1 low-cost counselling for parent or child/young person

• Weekly yoga for parents

• 1:1 yoga sessions for teenagers

• Monthly creative sessions for parents

• Educational programmes empowering parents with skills and knowledge to support their children

• Parent peer support

https://www.holdingspace.org.uk/