Posted 2:10pm
After a great deal of effort this year, it is becoming more and more apparent that public sector funding is going to be nigh on impossible for a start up like ours in this field - around preventive and corrective mental health. Everyone praises our concept, our delivery has received terrific feedback from service users and companies, our passion and uniqueness has flourished, but then we are told that the money cupboards are bare, and we need to provide even more evidence.
So, with that in mind, we have to explore the private sector option. And we have talked about this for a while, and brought it up in this blog.
But we now have to move forward - less talking, more action.
So, we have been in discussions with Mellow Parenting - Rosemary on our board is the CEO. We would like to run a joint event aimed at CSR Managers (Corporate Social Responsibility). Inviting as many as we can - looking at 200-300), we would promote our own projects, whilst running sessions describing what we would be doing with service users, as we have very similar values, even though coming from a different angle. If we manage it properly, it can be fun, interactive, as well as full of information. All with a view to winning sponsorship from the company. In return, both HMHB and MP can offer free events to the company.
A lot of CSR involves people like ourselves trying to get money from companies without being able to offer something in return, except publicity. We can offer practical intervention that can seriously help maintain a happy workforce.
We are building up a database of email addresses for CSR Managers, and will try and run an event towards the end of February. Meanwhile, we need to get sponsorship to pay for it and are running ideas through that.
It is an exciting idea, and being able to involve and bring proactive participation to the event can only boost our opportunities. It's a hell of a lot of work, preparation and organisation, but if we can get funding from it then it has to be worth it.
Meanwhile, we will continue to push on.
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