Blogs

Today, we come together to celebrate the momentous occasion of New Hope’s 25th Anniversary. The service opened in October 1998. The team walked into a spanking-new buildi…

Trauma-informed approaches are so integral to how we operate as a service provider that we now see this as a common sense approach; after all, it was adopted in response…

Your identity, your choice! A Statement of Support for Transgender People At Social Interest Group, we champion the importance of positive identity as a crucial element i…

One hundred and fifteen people lose their lives in the UK each week by suicide. So many are living with suicidal thoughts, and though there are complex reasons that lead…

Why our ‘drugs are bad’ approach has only made things worse: This month, the Home Affairs Select Committee published its extensive report on drug policy and treatment in…

“Creating Hope Through Action” is the triennial theme for the World Suicide Prevention Day from 2021-2023. This theme serves as a powerful call to action and reminder tha…

Digitisation has become a real government buzzword but what is it and why is it being presented as a solution to many national issues such as the national backlog in cour…

The increase in prison populations over the last few years is staggering. Part of the increase is due to recalls also increasing at significant rates; the most recent sta…

Women, Race and the Criminal Justice System Ever heard of Cultural Mediation? Hibiscus Initiatives have shared new research findings and recommendations based on their wo…

‘While black people are more likely to be held in prison to await their trials and sentencing, and for longer periods, research suggests they are also far more likely to…

For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt like an outsider in my own life, searching for a place where I could truly belong. Our society is structured in a way that…

Last week, I got the dreaded ‘call from school’ on my mobile phone in the middle of the work day. My 9-year-old had choked on a grape, stopped breathing, and…

I remember the 1st time I visited to the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar in Punjab India.  My mum took me of course! We went to visit my grandparents and family…

When we think of someone working towards an apprenticeship, we may have in our minds a young school leaver, working in a vocational role, maybe in a factory or an enginee…

Communication is one of our essential human functions, without which many phases of World Civilisation would not have existed. Consequently, language emerges as the prima…

As we approach the end of LGBTQ+ Pride month, I would like to follow up on the excellent Blog by Rares earlier in the month with a few thoughts about growing older as a g…

This would have probably been the title of this blog had it been written before 1973, when ‘The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)’ s…

This Sunday will be celebrated in the UK as mothering Sunday, while most of the rest of the world, celebrate Mother’s Day in May. So I’ve been thinking about mother…

Jas Uppal raised money for the Social Interest Group earlier this year. Jas trained for the Hampton Court Half Marathon as part of her fundraising efforts. She…

June was Pride Month, a month when the LGBTQIA+ community is celebrated. Whilst much of Pride is for celebratory purposes, the occasion also marks an important historic b…

The 25th May marked a year since George Floyd was murdered in the United States, triggering worldwide condemnation and protests. Naturally our thoughts were with George’s…

My name is Liridona Ahmeti, but you can call me Liri. I am the new Activities Coordinator at SIG Equinox Lewisham. I take the lead on Service User Engagement and my daily…

International Women’s Day is such an important day for me. I love being a woman, celebrating all women and sharing women’s success and achievements. For me, paying it for…

“This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be” – Alan Turing in an interview with The Times newspaper, 11th June 1949. Wh…

There are many of us who are carers, trying to balance that role with a career.  I am sharing what it has been like for me as a carer and the difficulty the lockdown…

It’s been a wee while since I contributed to our blogs. I know I’m not the only one who has found this second lockdown and ongoing threat of the virus at times overwhelmi…

Our staff are some of the most dedicated and innovative and are always looking for new ways to engage Service Users. Please read the blog below from Marcia, a Recovery Wo…

Since 1988, December 1st has been designated World AIDS Day by the World Health Organisation and this year’s theme is “Global solidarity, shared responsibility”.  It…

Today marks a month since I’ve been hurled out of the duty of motherhood and back to manager mode. I’ve left the safe cocoon of maternity leave, my dressing gown and the…

Sarah is a Service User within our Brighton Trailblazer service, who has recently completed a programme of recovery and been supported to get her own home. The aim of t…

This blog is from Stuart Jenkin, the Vice Chair of our Board, about how he copes with his diabetes. Many Service Users and some of our staff also live with this disease,…

We have now published our fundraising page and have launched our first campaign and welcomed the first of our donors through the door. We are now well on our way to build…

It’s probably because of the strange times we are in, but I had to be reminded that June is Pride month.  I suppose I have started to get used to seeing rainbow flag…

It’s day 36 in the Big Brother pandemic simulator; the area formally known as my living room re-purposed for strategic-level admin. I use two screens to make myself feel…

So here we are in the third week of the significant government enforced restrictions. I am not personally a fan of the term “lockdown”, it sounds like something which is…

As we move into April and a new month in lockdown, I am aware of the growing challenges of social distancing and self-isolation. For many of our Service Users, isolation…

Today we are testing our pandemic plans across the business which includes closing Head Office. But what does home working look like for me? Well, this little fella, Budd…

Dear colleagues It’s strange how the world works isn’t it? Only two weeks ago the government were describing social care workers as ‘unskilled’ and the media spent time d…