Category: News

Do you want to join us on the journey of improving the care offered to those with mental health difficulties?

We are looking for a new Chair and up to three new Trustees to help us on our mission to improve spiritual and pastoral care in the mental health field.

Being Alongside was founded 40 years ago to help promote a holistic approach to supporting those experiencing mental health difficulties. The charity has a Christian foundation, operating non-denominationally and working with local groups (both faith based and non-faith based) which directly support individuals by ‘being alongside’ them through challenging times.

Our primary activity is to encourage and support local projects, specifically drop-in café style programmes and befriending schemes, including through the provision of seed corn funding for new projects.

We are a small charity with around 100 registered supporters, and one part time administrator. Expenditure has exceeded income for the last few years, but the trustees have adopted an ambitious approach to using our historic reserves to support new projects which deliver our charitable objects in communities across the country.

We are looking for a Chair (or individuals interested in being a Co-Chair) and Trustees to help navigate the next stage of the charity’s journey, including taking decisions on future fundraising strategy.

We are particularly keen to attract trustees with accounting/finance, governance or fundraising experience, and hope to appoint new office holders from May 2025 for an initial period of three years.

Trustee meetings are held once a quarter, for two hours, usually in central London. While online attendance is possible, we encourage trustees to attend in person for at least two meetings per year. Trustees are also encouraged to attend occasional events organised by the charity.

While both of these roles are voluntary, expenses will be fully reimbursed.

Role descriptions can be downloaded here:

For an informal chat about the charity and these roles, please contact our current Chair, Ben Wilson: chair@beingalongside.org.uk.

Expressions of interest in the form of a brief personal statement (no more than 500 words) should be sent to admin@beingalongside.org.uk by Friday 28th February, or submitted via the Trustees Unlimited website by the same date. We will then be in touch with further details including opportunities to attend a trustee meeting as an observer.

On Saturday 5th April we will hold a half-day conference exploring the topic of journeying together with God and each other through life’s challenges.

The event will take place between 10.30am and 2pm at All Saints, Battersea Fields, South London. All Saints (100 Prince of Wales Dr, London SW11 4BD ) is easily accessed from Battersea Park or Queenstown Road train stations.

We are pleased to announce that one of our Patrons, the Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani will introduce proceedings, which will include a keynote address from the Revd Prof Christopher Cook, co-author of Struggling with God: Mental Health and Christian Spirituality.

Christopher’s book is described by the publishers, SPCK, as “a fresh, hopeful and scriptural companion for both those struggling with mental illness and their supporters, carers, and the church community who, like Jesus, seek to come alongside all with the practical and spiritual hope of a God who journeys with us in our suffering.” Copies will be available to purchase at the event.

Our second speaker will be Andrea Smyth, Railway Mission’s Chaplain to London North and Eurostar. Andrea will talk about the charity’s ministry offering confidential, impartial pastoral care to the railway community and passengers of the railway network – including those facing family breakdown, mental ill-health and bereavement.

As always, we will ensure there is plenty of time for questions, discussion and of course meeting others. Coffee and tea will be served upon arrival, and a light sandwich lunch will be provided to close.

While in the past, attendees have generously offered donations to help cover costs, these events have typically run at a loss to the charity. The trustees have therefore decided to ask attendees for a payment of £10 in advance (£5 for the unwaged) to help ensure that such events are sustainable into the future.

To book, please email admin@beingalongside.org.uk with your name and also make a donation for either £10 or £5 via the ‘Donate’ button above (we will match this up when PayPal notifies us of your donation). Alternatively, please send payment via an online transfer or by cheque. We are trying to avoid taking cash payments on the day.

We look forward to seeing you in April!

Our Summer 2024 issue of Being Alongside magazine is out!

This issue has a big focus on what has been achieved so far with your support through our £20,000 two-year grant programme.

Our chair Ben Wilson provides an update on the grant programme, and sets out the options for extending the scheme beyond its planned two years, depending on how the assisted projects have fared and on how our charity funds are doing.

After a print version of the report of our 2024 conference, the issue goes on to look in more detail at two of our newly supported projectse—Sunflowers Café at Freemantle Baptist Church in Southampton and Pippins Community Centre in Axminster, Devon—and we’re also delighted to feature an update from Sue Clayton of Arnold Methodist Church in Nottingham, letting us know that the mental health befriendly and support group for which provided seed funding back in 2016 is still thriving in 2024.

Our main “think piece” is provided by John Vallat, who shares his thoughts on the meaning and practice of “being alongside”, including the very handy mnemonic “ALIVE”, which helps us to remember some of the key aspects of how we can be alongside someone as we can journey together: Accepted, Listened to, Involved and Included as an Individual, Valued, and Encouraged.

Fr John Cullen offers a thought-provoking review of Lorna Tucker’s recent documentary on homelessness, Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son, which closes with a debate on how the phenomenon can be addressed in a holistic way.

Our new patron Dr Larry Culliford provides a feature version of the address he gave to our 2024 conference, in which he thoughtfully reveals how he learnt to become the person he is, and how he helped to found the Spirituality and Psychiatry group within the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The retrospective theme continues as Jamie Summers offers reflections on his almost 30 years of involvement in our charity.

And finally, as part of our continuing series looking at groups with similar aims to ours, our editor Trevor Parsons meets Renew Wellbeing, the dynamic Christian charity which, in less than a decade, has grown a network of 260 wellbeing spaces and places where it’s OK not to be OK. (A special mention to any keen-eyed readers who write in to tell us which of those 260 spaces is currently benefitting from our financial support! Ed.)

Our magazine is freely available to all digitally. If you would like to enjoy it in glossy paper form, you are warmly encouraged to become one of our supporters.

Being Alongside’s honorary treasurer, John Vallat, is stepping down later this year after many years of dedicated service to the charity.

John’s departure means the charity is looking for a successor who can work with our administrator on the proper financial running of the organisation. The responsibilities are not onerous: we need someone to verify online bank transfers, undertake some basic double checking of certain calculations, and work with Lucy to produce our annual financial accounts and budgets.

No formal accountancy training or experience is necessary, though clearly it would help to have a head for figures, and proficiency and confidence with both online banking and Excel spreadsheets. If you know of anyone who might be interested in taking on this voluntary position (or you personally are interested), then please contact our Chair Ben Wilson to set up an informal discussion.

This year’s annual conference explored different ways that churches and other community groups can effectively ‘be alongside’ those experiencing mental health challenges.

Drawing on the rich experience of our affiliate groups, the gathering enjoyed stimulating presentations from various examples of community-based pastoral support, and lots of opportunities to chat about how these beacons of good practice could help inspire other such projects.

More than 30 supporters of Being Alongside gathered in the wonderful setting of St Peter’s, Battersea, at the heart of the Winstanley Estate.

The day began with an opening address by Dr Larry Culliford – Being Alongside’s new Patron. Larry reflected on his experience as a psychiatrist, in particular in training new practitioners to respond attentively to the needs of their patients. Larry stressed the importance of ‘being’ rather ‘doing’; and of sitting in true company with those who are suffering. He reflected on the role of spirituality as part of the human experience, and the value of meditative practice.

Continue reading “Our 2024 conference ‘Aspects of Being Alongside’: report”

Our annual conference this year will focus on different ways we can ‘be alongside’ those in need – with examples from across the charity’s affiliated organisations and beyond.

The free event will feature guest speakers including:

• Dr Larry Culliford, Co-Founder of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group
• Canon Andrew Wilson, Chair of Croydon APCMH

The event takes place on Saturday 9 March 2024, beginning at 11.00am and finishing at around 3.00pm. Our venue will be St Peter’s Church Hall on Plough Road in Battersea, just a few minutes’ walk from Clapham Junction stations (Grant Road exit, then down right down Plough Road towards the Thames).

Continue reading “Aspects of ‘Being Alongside’ – our annual conference for 2024, on Sat 9 March”

We’ve revised and updated our set of five “action sheets” which provide valuable advice and information based on the experience our local groups and affiliates have gained over many years.

If you are considering setting up a drop-in session or befriending scheme, or working to make your community group or place of worship more welcoming for people who are in mental distress, we hope you will find them useful.

Our summer issue of Being Alongside magazine is out, with a cover featuring the theme of “setting free”.

We begin by paying a grateful tribute to our late patron Professor Andrew Sims, who died in November last year, and Jamie Summers reflects on a thought-provoking afternoon of conversation with the distinguished professor a few years ago.

Ben Wilson introduces our new grant scheme for local drop-ins, with a special focus on helping to get new projects off the ground.

We thank outgoing trustees Miriam Reyes, Marissa Lawingco and Stafford Cunningham for their service to our association over a combined total of nearly 20 years.

Continuing our series exploring organisations with similar aims to ours, we meet Befriending Networks, among whose members is our affiliate Battersea Befriending Network.

Our administrator Lucy Roose, a priest with a passion for compassion, tells us about how something as simple as a table can signify something rather special.

The second half of this issue features content from “Setting Free”, the conference we held last Spring with a focus on the inter-related topics of addiction, prison life and mental health. Dr Paul McLaren gives us the medical view of the latest analysis and trends in the area of additions; counsellor Tess tells us how Alcoholics Anonymous enables her to be a better person, and outlines what rehab owes to AA; Revd Jonathan Aitken, a chaplain at HMP Pentonville, entertains and enlightens with the lessons he learned since becoming the first cabinet minister since Tudor times to be jailed; and custodial manager Neil Fraser introduces Pentonville’s innovative Neurodiverse Unit.

Our magazine is freely available to all digitally. If you would like to enjoy it in glossy paper form, you are warmly encouraged to become one of our supporters.

On Saturday 11 March, more than 40 people gathered at The Charterhouse in central London for the third conference organised by Being Alongside since the start of 2022.

The day focused on the inter-related topics of substance addiction, mental health and prison life, and we were pleased to welcome a range of expert guest speakers to help explore our subject.

Delegates heard from experienced psychiatrist Dr Paul McLaren about the current medical approach to major substance addictions – chief among them, alcohol dependency – and about recent updates to the international classification system, which guides healthcare professionals in making diagnoses. We also heard about the remaining gaps in medical knowledge about the nature of addictions and their treatment.

Continue reading “‘Setting Free’ event on mental health, addiction and prison: conference report”