News

Local leadership guru welcomed as charity ambassador  

Chester mental health champion, Platform for Life, has welcomed local businessman, Chris Larsen, in the role of charity ambassador.   

Praise from Chris Matheson MP for Platform for Life's work

Chester MP Chris Matheson has praised the work of a local charity in supporting the growing numbers of children and young people in the area who are struggling with mental health issues.

Big thank you to Kualo

As a charity, we rely on fundraising to help us deliver our work and have a very limited budget for support activities like website hosting. Big thank you to Kualo for offering us free website hosting.

Meeting with the High Sheriff

Great to meet and share more about our work at Platform for Life with Cheshire High Sheriff Robert Mee, Cheshire Community Foundation’s Debbie Smith and donor Caroline Lyons (not in photo.)

Charity honoured to meet HRH Prince Edward

Platform for Life were delighted to meet HRH Prince Edward when he visited Chester on 14th October 2021. He was keen to meet organisations making a real difference in helping people to recover from the challenges caused by Covid-19 and we were one of 30 charities from across Cheshire invited to meet and talk with him. It was great to be able to speak with Prince Edward about mental health and the value of early support.

The Chester Bluecoat Charity awards us again

We are extremely thankful for all of the support we have received from The Chester Bluecoat Charity and grateful to receive this wonderful donation.

Marjory Boddy

We can not express how much this grant will help us with their wonderful donation. Thank you Marjory Boddy Charitable Trust.

Thank you Severn Trent Community Fund

We are delighted to have been awarded a grant from Severn Trent Community Fund.

Our Social Impact Report June 2021

The evidence in our Social Impact Report is taken from our own evaluations, case studies and feedback from our clients and referrers.

Cheshire Masons awards us Community Grant

We are grateful and honoured that the Cheshire Masons are supporting our work in Blacon and Lache, providing free of charge and locally accessible counselling and play therapy sessions to families (parents, children and young people) living in poverty and struggling with poor mental health.

Lockdown is easing

At last England’s lockdown restrictions are easing and we can now see more friends and family, finally giving those we care about a hug.

For some, these changes and the re-adjustment back to some sort of ‘normality’ can be difficult and cause additional worry.

Ian Wright: Home Truths

TW: domestic abuse

Three weeks ago (6th May 2021) Ian Wright: Home Truths was shown on the BBC (it’s still available to watch on their streaming service). The programme focused on Ian investigating the effects of growing up in a psychologically abusive and violent home on children.

“In the last year, 1.6 million women experienced domestic abuse, and in 90% of domestic abuse cases there is a child present.” (BBC)

Donations for Play therapy boxes

We are asking for donations of toys and crafts for our children and young people’s play therapy boxes.

Playboxes are very important in play therapy. Some children and young people are unable to process their emotions and articulate their problems. Through play therapy observations, our trained play therapists can gain better insights and understanding of the needs of the child and young person.

A wonderful donation from John Lewis and Partners

We have received a wonderful donation from John Lewis and Partners Give A Little Local Love campaign.

Thank you for helping us to continue our work in mental health supporting low-income families in need.

Maternal Mental Health Week

This week marks Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week This week is dedicated to talking about mental health problems during and after pregnancy. Perinatal mental illness affects up to 20% of new and expectant mums and can have an impact on the whole family.

Stress Awareness Month

For almost thirty years April has been recognised as the month for raising awareness about stress and how too much can be detrimental to our well-being. Unfortunately, for many families living with prolonged and heightened levels of stress, relationships can really suffer and may well result in relationship breakdown.

A Big Thank you To Swettenham Chemists

A big thank you to Swettenham Chemists in Blacon who reached out and offered us a significant donation towards our counselling work with low income families in the Blacon area.

Elsie’s Brownie baking bonanza leads to windfall for Platform for Life

Elsie, an enterprising 13 year old from Christleton High, has put her love and talent for baking to great use during August, raising £225 for our charity. With time on her hands as a result of the lockdown, Elsie decided to put her baking skills towards doing something for good. Everyone likes a Brownie so with this as her choice of bake, Elsie set about creating and printing up a leaflet to distribute locally with details of her Brownies and a bit about Platform for Life.

Redrow’s Kings Moat Community Fund donation

Redrow’s Kings Moat Community Fund has awarded us a donation that will allow is to continue to provide free counselling and play sessions for families in Lache.

A welcome boost from Avenue Services

We are happy to announce that we have been awarded a grant from Avenue Services to help us to continue to provide free counselling in Blacon and Lache.

Platform for Life Highly Commended in Cheshire Community Foundation President's Award

Platform for Life’s work with families living in Lache and struggling with poverty and poor mental health was recognised today. Cheshire Community Foundation held their President’s Awards and we were ‘Highly Commended’ in the Impact category. Whilst we don’t do what we do to win awards, we’re delighted to have been recognised with this award and to receive it together with a cheque for £1200 towards our running costs from the High Sheriff of Cheshire Mark Mitchell DL and his wife Anita Mitchell.

Welcome to our new Patron David Briggs

We’re delighted to introduce David Briggs as Platform for Life’s new Patron. David has supported and championed our charity from its earliest days and shares our commitment to helping low income families address poor mental health and stop it becoming a life long disability.

“The biggest issue in Cheshire today is mental illness and I have been very impressed with the work which Platform for Life does to help those with mental challenges in their life. It would be impossible to exaggerate the importance of their work which for many of their clients is life changing. I much look forward to helping this special charity in any way that I can.”

Platform for Life receives game changing grant from Westminster Foundation

Just in time for Christmas, Platform for Life heard the wonderful news that we were to be awarded a major grant by the Westminster Foundation. This not only secures our existing work but opens up significant opportunities for further expansion of our counselling/play therapy service.

This important funding helps Platform for Life continue our work in Lache and Blacon, providing free of charge and locally accessible counselling and play therapy sessions to families (parents, children and young people) living in poverty and struggling with poor mental health. Our focus is on strengthening family relationships and creating more stable and nurturing environments for children. We want to stop the cycle of poor mental health being passed down from one generation to the next and through earlier intervention, to prevent poor mental health becoming a life-long disability.

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 17th October 2019

Today marks the 27th anniversary of the declaration by the General Assembly of the United Nations making 17th October International Day for the Eradication of Poverty . Poverty isn’t solely an economic issue and encompasses both a lack of income and the basic capabilities to live in dignity. It’s also not confined to countries we consider’ third world’. We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world and yet the number of children living in poverty has been steadily increasing in recent years.

Children’s Commissioner publishes “Manifesto for children”

The Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield recently published a much needed ‘Manifesto for Children’ which calls on political parties to include a six-point plan in their election manifestos to transform the life chances for disadvantaged children and to help all of England’s 12 million children to thrive. This is targeted at all politicians and not one specific political party.