Hearts & Minds Blog

Hearts and Minds is expanding our team to open up opportunities for diverse voices to be heard and to embed our commitment to equitable, inclusive support at the heart of our workstreams . We are recruiting five ‘Root Makers’ to work alongside us to bring greater accountability and depth to our focus on EDI, in a way that is in keeping with the collaborative spirit of the VCSE community. These are new roles within the team, thanks to support from The National Lottery Communi

Here at the Hearts & Minds Partnership, we are lucky enough to be working in the beating heart of the VCSE community in perinatal mental health. And if you've ever attended any of our Conversation Spaces or been involved in our main workstreams , you will know that ongoing evaluation is such an integral part of how we operate. We are always keen to evolve the way we gauge the impact of our work, in a collaborative and transparent way. Thanks to our recent funding from the Na

B3 - Bumps, Birth & Belonging CIC - Our regular spotlight on a grassroots VCSE organisation in the perinatal mental health sector What is the name of your organisation and when did you set up? The name of our organisation is B3 -Bumps, Birth and Belonging CIC and we set up in February 2023. Where are you based? We are based in Thurrock, Essex. What services do you offer and who do you support? We offer culturally relevant group and 1:1 perinatal peer support for women and fam

On the back of a rich discussion at one of our online Conversation Spaces, we wanted to explore the reality of cross-sector working. It’s spoken about in strategic forums as the ‘Gold Standard’ of operational models, though it varies from region to region. We spoke with Shelley McBride, Co-director of Connected Perinatal Support CIC , and Helen Martinez, a Community Peer Support Worker in the Derbyshire Perinatal Mental Health Service to look at how it works both strategical

Get Me Out The Four Walls (Norfolk) - Our regular spotlight on a grassroots VCSE organisation in the perinatal mental health sector What is the name of your organisation and when did you set up? Get Me Out The Four Walls was created in 2015 as a community-based peer support service, with the aim of preventing parents feeling isolated and lonely during the first years of parenthood. The organisation went on to become a registered Charity in 2018, dedicating their service to t

Over the past two and a half years, the Hearts and Minds team has been bowled over by the appetite from the grassroots perinatal mental health community to come together, share learning, celebrate successes and talk honestly about the challenges affecting our sector. We’ve had many meaningful conversations with well over 100 VCSE services in this space, all doing incredible work on the ground to support families experiencing perinatal mental health challenges. We’ve also host