Earlier this year, the Mental Health Alliance, in partnership with Nova, put out the invite to tender for the VCSE Sector Sustainability Pilot. This was aimed at Wakefield District based VCSE organisations, considered as ‘Tier 2 or 3’ on the Wakefield Third Sector Framework. The aim of the pilot is to support them over two years to become 'contract ready'. This is now named Thinking Differently. After an open tender process, 5 organisations were selected to take part in the project, and we're really excited to be able to share that these organisations are:

• Evergreen Active
• 5 Towns Christian Fellowship
• Wakefield District Society for Deaf People
• Turning Minds Around
• West Yorkshire ADHD Support Group

About the Project

• Thinking Differently is a two year pilot aimed at providing stability for these 5 organisations, allowing them to focus on their development needs.
• Peer support and learning/training sessions will be included within the scope.
• The project will be externally evaluated with findings informing future Mental Health Alliance work with the VCSE sector.

Charlotte Whale from the Mental Health Alliance, said:

"The Wakefield Mental Health Alliance is excited to support the Thinking Differently fund as part of the Community Mental Health transformation programme. The fund was developed in response to feedback provided by our VCSE partners and supports our ambition of improving partnership working to deliver person centred care for the population of Wakefield."

We're thrilled to announce that Antony Nelson will be leading on this piece of work. Antony is an experienced Change Management and Organisational Development associate with a passion for making a difference to services provided for the public good. Until recently he was Managing Director at Conexus, the General Practice owned Federation delivering Primary Care services and Training as well as providing infrastructure support for General Practice in Wakefield.

Over a long and varied career Antony has worked with large and small public sector organisations including those in the not-for-profit sectors across the country to support them on their improvement and development journeys. He is a qualified business coach and once upon a time was an Occupational Therapist supporting people living with severe mental ill health. He is Trustee at both Groundwork Yorkshire and Groundwork UK and chairs a sub-committee in common across all the Groundwork charities in the North of England.

Antony said:‍‍

"This is a fantastic opportunity for the charities involved and I am very excited to be working alongside them with their development. I am hoping this will be a great chance for sharing learning and supporting an even more sustainable VCSE sector for the benefit of the people of the Wakefield District"