Funding An Innovative New Support Service for Young People and their Carers at Mind-In-Harrogate

Why?

We are raising funds for a vital new service in memory of a much loved family member, Dave Keeton, who died recently and unexpectedly.

Dave was a well respected Educational Psychologist before his retirement with a passion for supporting young people.

There is an urgent need now for more support for young people and their families and carers faced by a cost of living crisis, the negative after shocks of the pandemic and a severe lack of resources in Government funded services. Opportunities for people to meet and build relationships face to face have disappeared as Youth Centres, swimming pools and other centres have closed fuelling an epidemic of loneliness among young people particularly.

What is it for?

The proposed new Support Service will explore programmes like Drawing and Talking, a child centred one to one intervention focussing on supporting the social and emotional wellbeing of children and young people. It provides an effective way for children and young people to process emotional pain or trauma they may be experiencing. Support Groups for issues such as post Covid anxiety will be considered as part of the new service.

Who are we?

As a family, we have a long track record in providing support through counselling services. Pat Barnes, Dave Keeton’s sister, a Psychotherapist, founded and funded the Orchard Therapy Centre in Horsforth, North Leeds. For over 20 years the centre and its team of professional counsellors provided support for thousands of clients from differing age and demographic backgrounds.

In the past three years the family have run two specific fund raising activities for Mind-In-Harrogate. The first was Masks4Mind where we partnered with the long established British manufacturer Sunspel to make masks for front line retail and hospitality workers and offer them for sale to customers of businesses the family are involved in, with proceeds all flowing to Mind. Then John Barnes co wrote with a colleague Laura Cowan, a book about companies and individuals they knew about their experiences during the pandemic. The book, Altering Course, the Covid Chronicles, was published in 2022. All proceeds go to Mind-in-Harrogate. Dave Keeton, the inspiration for this latest round of fund raising, was an active supporter and fund raiser for our last two campaigns. Mind in Harrogate District is an independent charity founded in 1973 and is affiliated with National Mind and the Mind Federation.