Charity books in at new home
AVALLEY-BASED mental health charity has thanked the community for its vital support after securing its own headquarters.
After a year of providing social events and promoting healthy mental wellbeing, the team at WaterWell Foundation CIC moved into the office space above the old library in Waterfoot.
Tracy Cuthbertson alongside her niece, Lia Holmes, set up the organisation in August 2020 after losing many family members and close friends to
suicide. The uptake of the new space came about after Martin and Lynne Kemp, founders of the Old Library Café CIC, approached WaterWell to offer financial support as their monthly chosen charity.
Founded in October 2017, the café is a place where people can meet, enjoy some tasty food and relax in a pleasant environment serving the local community.
The office space available was in the right place for the charity and made perfect sense to make good use of the café to meet groups, individuals or organisations wanting to get involved.
Securing the office premises in September could not
have happened without a donation of more than £2,300 from local businessman and fundraiser Jay McFadden.
Jay, a director at DJM Direct, raised sponsors to complete a gruelling 24km SAS Selection test ‘Fan Dance’ march staged over Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in the Brecon Beacons.
Tracy said: “The support we have received so far from the Rossendale community has been remarkable and it’s clear that there is a need for a service that WaterWell offers in Rossendale and beyond.
“There are some fantastic local organisations that we are collaborating with, and
we are still expanding our network.
“Our next steps are to increase our pool of volunteers.”
Debra Sims, from Apple Transcription Ltd, donated everything needed for the office. Limelight Signs Ltd, in Bacup, offered to make signs for the new office base as a donation.
Help and items have also been donated from Proctor Construction, DMC Ltd, Amy Scaife, and Damian Hanson, from CircleLoop.
Craig Proctor joined the team as a volunteer this summer, advanced clinical practitioner Wendy Cockroft is the secretary, and David McFadden, MD of JEI Drilling and Cutting Solutions
Ltd, is a newly appointed trustee.
Tracy is now turning to the community to help with this growth, as it rolls out a new project called the power of 3.
She said: “The first plea we are exploring in this project is to secure 3,000 individuals within three months to regularly donate at least £3 every three weeks.
“Once we’ve started to see the impact of the initial growth strategy, we’ll then extend the power of 3 project to companies and organisations that want to expand wellbeing offerings within the workplace.”
Visit www.waterwellfoundation.co.uk for more information and donations.