News

Disability Interview – Emma In this second interview for Disability History Month, we spoke with Elizabeth, who lives with what is often referred to as a ‘hidden di…

In the first interview in our disability series, I spoke with 39-year-old Ilona Brunyanszki, the People and Culture Administrator. Born and raised in Hungary, Ilona has l…

At Social Interest Group, we champion the importance of positive identity as a crucial element in health, happiness, and independence. Therefore, we have been deeply conc…

Pathways to Independence has received a certificate of achievement for making it to the final stage of the Best Use of Volunteers category at the Kent Charity Awards last…

On Wednesday 20th September, Greg Tythe, Director of Development, Marketing and Communications, Veronica Claridi, Service Manager of Penrose Community Care and Support (P…

New systems for Met Police and Community Care Pathways  Last week, the latest NHS Mental Health Crisis Care Agreement for London was shared. It outlines a continuing…

As part of a broader campaign across North West London to tackle health inequalities, RM Partners West London Cancer Alliance, NHS NW London, and NW London ICS provided S…

This is Carers Week, an annual event that aims to spread awareness, love, and appreciation of the fantastic individuals who spend a large majority of their time looking a…

Thursday 4th May, saw the launch of the Brighton Fringe Bursary Winner 2023, SIG Equinox Brighton Women’s Service exhibition launch. ‘I AM MORE THAN’ is an artistic…

Our New Hope service hosted a BBQ on Friday 28th, April, in celebration of King Charles’ Coronation. Based in Lewisham, New Hope is a high-support service for men on a me…

Social Interest Group (SIG) has recently partnered with the NHS NW London Integrated Care Board to conduct funded consultations with residents and participants within loc…

Last Friday, the 24th of March, we hosted the SIG Awards 2023 at Lift in Islington. The event was attended by approximately sixty nominees and was a mix of staff, residen…

Continuing with our IWD series on SIG women, I met with Tracey, a Participant who runs one of the groups at SIG Penrose Synergy. The group, which meets every Friday, is a…

For International Women’s Day (IWD) , a day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women around the globe, we spoke with some of SIG…

Our Solace Centre service held a silent disco for their 2022 Christmas celebration, which was a resounding success. Catherine Bingham, Interim Manager of Solace, said: “A…

Rosie Hunt from SIG Penrose Synergy service bravely decided in December to shave her head to raise money to buy Christmas dinners for Synergy participants and their famil…

Our SIG Penrose Roots to Recovery garden-based service held its Christmas party on Friday, 16th December, attended by forty members and volunteers. The weather was not gr…

Our Synergy service in Luton held the first of its Winter Warmer sessions last Friday, 9th December.  There will be another four on the 13th, 16th, 20th and 22nd. Th…

Volunteers are an integral part of our SIG community. Not only do they volunteer at our services, but they also undertake fundraising efforts on our behalf. Earlier this…

London services Jigsaw, New Hope and Lewisham services held a joint Black History Month celebration on Friday 21st October. It was day of fellowship and fun for the past…

The celebration included, displays, dancing, food and presentations. They submitted their historical and modern perspective: Black history month is not just a month or a…

Our Holman House service welcomed The Mayor of Bedford – known to all as ‘Mayor Dave’ – and Laura Church, Chief Executive of Bedford Borough Council, to the s…

Imagine growing up multiracial, multilingual, between countries, between cultures, and never quite feeling like you fit in. Then imagine using those conflicting parts of…

SIG Penrose, in partnership with His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), is pleased to announce the opening of a new accommodation and support service in Lamb…

A message from our CEO I am very pleased to announce that on 1st November 2022, the Social Interest Group is looking forward to welcoming Safe Ground as a new subsidiary…

Our Solace centre service recently received funding from the National Lottery to renew their garden. This provided members and staff with a boost post-COVID and they set…

On a cold damp September, the 29th Roots gathered its members together to celebrate the first year of being fully funded by the National Lottery. Staff did not want the m…

Participants and Residents from our Southampton Way (SWAY) service took part in the planting, nurturing, and watering of a plot of spinach in the service garden with the…

The Social Interest Group, our subsidiaries, staff and Board of Trustees, send our deepest condolences to the Royal family at this time of great loss and sadness. Her Maj…

Last month, our Brent Craven Park service took some of the residents to the Natural History Museum (NHM). Below is an account of the trip sent in by Peter Henderson. R…

The residents of the Croydon services, staff and management journeyed to Brighton Beach on 28th July and had a lovely day out. The day began at a café where the residents…

Jigsaw’s annual BBQ was held on Friday 29th July, at the service’s main hub in Catford, and what a wonderful event it was! There were games, dancing, plenty of food and d…

At SIG, we work with a cohort of participants and residents with very complex needs. This requires our staff to have very robust personalities or to be well trained to ha…

The Service Manager at Bridge House Alex Sinclair, arranged for ARK Farm to hold an indoor furry and friendly experience for the mums and children at the service. Ark bro…

Our Brighton Women’s Service and its residents felt very strongly about supporting American women with regards to the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe vs Wade. Roe…

Our SIG Penrose Synergy service hosted the Mayor of Luton and guests on Friday 8th July, for a 10th anniversary celebration at the Roots to Recovery community garden on B…

Our Solace Centre service received a grant from the National Lottery to enlarge their garden and grow vegetables and fruits to encourage healthy eating amongst their memb…

Our Penrose Enfield service offers 24-hour supported housing support for adults aged 18 to 65 with enduring mental health illness. It comprises a rehabilitation unit and…

Bridge House’s Jubilee celebration took the form of an afternoon tea party in the garden. The day started with Alex and Karen running a morning baking session with two of…

Biscot House held a BBQ with Royal games to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee on Monday, 30th May. Residents supported staff and the activities coordinator to decorate t…

The Pathways Outreach Peer Mentor Coordinator Donna and some of the peer mentors and clients at Pathways, experienced something different a on a Monday morning a few week…

In honour of Mental Health Awareness week, staff at SIG Penrose Croydon decided to promote it within the service to highlight the importance of mental health and how Serv…

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week, a week in which people are being encouraged to talk about the importance of protecting their mental health and raising awareness…

Our Friday Connects group is an active social group and more and club members and volunteers have the chance to move inside and outside as they wish to get involved. They…

The Activities Coordinator at Biscot House, Runi, taught residents how to make samosas using donated ingredients, a few fresh ingredients and spices. Before, they started…

Our Synergy office was yesterday visited by Sarah Owen, Luton MP and Shadow Minister for Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Faith. The visit introduced Ms Owen to the Syner…

Since the war broke out in the Ukraine, many organisations have mobilised and started fundraising and donation efforts to assist those displaced or otherwise affected by…

We were very pleased to host the SIG awards in person again this year. The event took place last Friday 18th March in Islington and was a great success. The programme inc…

Penrose Croydon held an all-day event which included activities and fun, in which their Service Users were involved and helped to fundraise in celebration of Rednose Day.

In the third of our series of profiles for International Women’s Day week, today we profile Veronica Claridi. Imagine growing up multiracial, multilingual, between countr…

Continuing with our IWD profile series. This is Tricia’s story… When I sat down to speak with Tricia, I did not know that the interview would leave me humbled…

In honour of International Women’s Day, we are this week running a series on the women of SIG.  We hope that you will enjoy these profiles and be inspired by t…

Our Bridge House service was given a boost recently with the support of a charity runner at the Hampton Court half marathon Jas Uppal, a Psychology Facilitator in the Pri…

Brook Drive, our detoxification service, is closed and has been deregistered from regulated activities with the CQC as of January 2022 after 30 years of delivering high q…

Our Medway Outreach Peer Mentor Coordinator, Donna Payne, has been looking at ways to engage peer mentors and clients and increase their mental and physical health wellbe…

A sculpture, named ‘Hubert’ by one of the artists involved in its creation, was unveiled at the Roots to Recovery Seasonal Gathering in December. The sculpture was a culm…

Our Bridge House service is a supported living accommodation for women and their children in Luton. Bridge House delivers residential support to homeless families in the…

Our Group CEO Gill Arukpe, has contributed an article to the Inside Housing publication, in which she discusses, what changes the sector needs to make to offer high-quali…

Black History month was celebrated at the Social Interest Group, with activities and celebrations in various services. Marron House Our Ealing-based service Marron House…

The Mayor of Croydon, Councillor Sherwan Chowdhury, visited the Croydon CFO Activity Hub on on Thursday 21st October during their coffee morning. Also present were p…

Yesterday, 12th October 2021 our Luton service Penrose Roots to Recovery (Roots) hosted the Mayor of Luton, Councillor Mahmood Hussain, to a special celebration at the co…

When Darren, an ex-resident at Equinox Rinstead Road, set out for the supermarket on Saturday, it was just a few bus stops away so he expected to be there and back within…

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day and the theme this year is “Creating Hope Through Action.” The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) said it’s a p…

September 6, 2021 Penrose Roots, our garden-based project, has been awarded £413,004 from the National Lottery Community Fund. The award will be disbursed over a three-ye…

Our Brighton women’s service participated in the recently concluded Brighton Fringe festival. Their I AM MORE THAN art exhibition aimed to challenge the labels that are o…

SIG Penrose is proud to collaborate with Reed in Partnership in supporting men and women through their activity hubs. The HMPPS CFO Activity Hubs provide safe and support…

Penrose Options, last week welcomed the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Festus Akinbusoye as part of his planned visits to organisations that his office…

Four Pathways to Independence residents have started a 6-week cooking course, run in partnership with Ashdown and Medway Trust who run a housing related support hub in Ch…

Our Luton Synergy service ran a sexual violence step-down service from January to March, with 3 months funding received from the Police & Crime Commissioner. The serv…

SIG participated in the just concluded Mental Health Awareness Week with several activities. Below is just a snapshot of those activities. Biscot House Biscot House decid…

SIG Penrose is pleased to partner with the East London Foundation Trust (ELFT) in ‘The Coppice’ service, an exciting new pilot project in Bedfordshire. The project will l…

SIG Penrose’s Criminal Justice Service is pleased to be a lead partner with Reed in Partnership in the provision of CFO Activity Hubs for offenders in Croydon and Lewisha…

SIG Penrose is pleased to partner with Only A Pavement Away, to help the people we support through our Criminal Justice Services into employment in the hospitality sector…

This is International Women’s Day, and the theme this year is Choose to Challenge. Today we celebrate the incredible and inspirational women who work for the SIG. We are…

Why Doesn’t She Just Leave? Women stay in violent and abusive relationships for all kinds of reasons, says Janie Pamment – and childhood trauma is a significant one When…

This is LGBT+ history month and the theme this year is, ‘Body, Mind, Spirit.’ The overall aim of LGBT+ History month is to promote equality and diversity and SIG is an in…

Our women’s services provide a lifeline for women who are living in fear, being exploited or in many ways disadvantaged. The support we provide to vulnerable women…

We are pleased to announce that Pathways to Independence has joined the Social Interest Group. We welcome Pathways to Independence, a Kent based charity specialising in…

Our frontline staff are a crucial part of our business. Their interventions and interactions with Service Users is the foundation of all that we do. They are the true exp…

The importance of the work we do can never be over emphasised! The services we provide and the support that we give to those that need us is sometimes the difference betw…

Our services try to give Service Users as much normalcy as possible in order to live fulfilled lives. Christmas was no exception as they did all they could to ensure Serv…

Our Equinox Brighton Fulfilling Lives team have been getting into the festive spirit despite the constraints now placed upon us. They have made Christmas packs which are…

The wonderful work that our Solace Centre service does and has continued to do throughout the pandemic, has been featured in the Ealing news. Solace is our is our daily…

During these 16 days of action to end violence against women, we continue to raise awareness of the pervasive nature of male violence against women in our society. We als…

SIG welcomes the news that that planned changes to the rules on criminal record disclosures will come into effect on Saturday 28th November. In essence, it means that chi…

Our New Hope service held a joint event in celebration of its 22nd birthday and Black History Month. The event was Service User led and took place in a marquee in the bac…

This Black History Month has seemed more significant for a number of reasons, due to events that have taken place this year. The theme ‘Dig Deeper, Look Closer,Thin…

When the Service Users at Farley Road were asked what they wanted to do with their outdoor space, their responses included, having an area for smoking and growing herb fo…

Here is another great resource for BHM. It is a calendar which contains a wealth of information on black achievement. Each day features a different person, with a profile…

At SIG, World Mental Health Day was celebrated in a number of ways throughout the group. The first SIG virtual Tea and Talk was held on Thursday 8th October. Great conve…

Our Criminal Justice Services are doing extremely important work in the resettlement area. The October quarterly report from the Ministry of Justice Data Lab has highligh…

Our SIG Equinox Service, The Solace centre, has held an art and poetry competition for World Mental Health Day. Comedian Jo Brand, a  supporter of the centre, judged the…

October is Black History Month in the UK, which began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. But it is now much more…

The Bedford Blues Foundation has agreed a six-month programme with us, supporting physical & mental wellbeing. Service Users at our Homan House service will have…

SIG Equinox Brighton are amongst a group of organisations supporting the city’s Make Change Count campaign. The campaign, which supports people who are rough sleeping, is…

Over the last few weeks, Service Users and Staff at our Churchfield service have been reflecting on the months in lockdown, what this means to them, and how they have bee…

Our garden based project, SIG Penrose Roots observed Mental Health awareness Week with the a unique intuitive. Their “lettucebekind” campaign involved leaving lettuces wi…

In 1989, the movie ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ was released in the cinemas. Within that film the main characters coin the term, ‘Be Excellent to Each Other’ as a…

SIG Equinox is proud to be a part of Brighton and Hove’s Make Change Count campaign, supporting people who are rough sleeping, is back for 2020. More than £100,000 has be…

With intense pressure on the supply chain for PPE equipment, we are challenged to provide Scrubs to our frontline staff as recommended by the government. We are urgently…

Today, in partnership with Guys and St Thomas’s Hospital, the Social Interest Group through SIG Equinox joins the direct fight to help people recover from COVID 19! As of…

Honouring Service Users & Staff Approximately 40 guests gathered at Lift Angel in Islington for the first Social Interest Group Awards Luncheon on Monday, 24th F…

Today we are saddened by the news that female homicide is at its highest level in over a decade. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) released that in March 2019 and t…

Knowyourmoney.co.uk has published a new study on “the true cost of homelessness.” Research suggests that the main underlying cause of homelessness is lack of ac…

As part of Alcohol Awareness Week (11-17 November), Alcohol Change UK requested guest blogs called, Alcohol and Me, which is the theme for the week. The week is about awa…