It was our pleasure to visit the team at Solent Mind HQ and hand over a cheque for £3,699 to help fund the vital services that they do.

Solent Mind is our chosen charity for 2023.

We’ve actually been working with them for a few years now and they were nominated by our staff for dedication to mental health and wellbeing services for people across the south.

Poor mental health can have a much bigger impact than simply “feeling low” for a few days. It can impact our behaviour and our relationships. It can affect how we do our jobs and live our lives at home.

During the pandemic, looking after our health and wellbeing became paramount.

When Covid-19 hit, we were all worried about protecting our families and loved ones. But, there was an army of people who continued to fight and keep the country going. They were the ones who could not lock themselves away, or work from home. They were the ones who selflessly continued to serve our communities, despite the risks.

They were our amazing NHS, doctors and nurses, and social workers and they deserve all of our admiration and recognition. But there were others, like Welcome stores retail workers, who adopted that British “Keep Calm and Carry On” spirit. The great thing about our stores is that they also provided a place of familiarity at a time when many people were isolated – and that did keep us going when times were really tough.

And we’re only human.

Naturally, the worry of the unknowns in the world and doing our best to continue operating our stores and serving our customers safely took its toll – not just on our staff. We heard concerns from our customers too who were vulnerable or worried about doing their best for their family.

That’s when it became clear organisations like Solent Mind are vital for our communities, and it is our pleasure to do what we can to support them – and give something back.

Sadly, there is just not enough funding for NHS mental health services.

That is why organisations like Solent Mind are so heavily relied upon. They make sure that everyone gets access to the time and resources they need to help them get their lives back on track.

They also offer our staff access to services through our partnership, accessing guides such as dealing with mental health in the workplace, anxiety and many others, to ensure they are always feeling supported and doing the best job they can.

Jo Silsbury, Corporate Liaison Officer at Solent Mind said:

“Our corporate partnerships are so important as a way of generating all-important funding and we’re grateful to be working with Welcome Stores. Plus, it’s another way of collaborating with others to ensure we are offering the best services possible, but also spread the word about what we do – and how we can help.

“Our services were accessed by almost 55,000 people in 2021-2022 and more than 6,000 people received wellbeing services from our support centres, which are vital to our network. This latest donation from Welcome stores helps with our message to spread awareness that mental health matters, and everyone deserves to feel their best.”