Prior to setting up New Leaf Derbyshire, we consulted with over 30 front line staff/volunteers and 100 beneficiaries from support charities, the NHS, social services, and local housing associations, through steering groups and feedback forms. These consultations highlighted that:

A high proportion of disadvantaged households are living in extremely cluttered, unsafe and unhealthy environments, but no practical support seems to be available.

• Many disadvantaged households have a lack of furniture for the storage of clothes, toys or personal items, which can result in depressing and and ultimately high risk environments.
• Significant improvements would be made to the mental health, well-being and self-esteem of households by helping them to create and maintain a safe, healthy better organised and ‘homely’ living environment.
• Disadvantaged households are becoming increasingly isolated but are unable, or do not know how to access the health, leisure, social activities and services available to them within their community.
• To our knowledge, no other services like those that New Leaf Derbyshire were proposing to provide, exist locally (or nationally).

To address this, having decades of experience with working with charities, families and social welfare organisations, we created New Leaf Derbyshire, whose mission is to improve the mental health, wellbeing, and confidence, and reduce the loneliness and isolation of disadvantaged households in Derby and Derbyshire, by delivering the following activities, through a team of community volunteers: –

Why we are providing these services

The issues and barriers faced by our beneficiaries include (but are not limited to): –

• Educational challenges
• Ageing
• Drug and alcohol problems
• Social exclusion
• Single parenthood
• Illness
• Long-term unemployment

Our work is aimed at benefiting local communities across Derby/Derbyshire,

by helping disadvantaged and struggling households to: –

• Improve their mental health & well-being by improving their home environment and turning their living accommodation into somewhere they feel is a ‘home’ rather than just somewhere to live.
• Reduce their loneliness and isolation (and improve their mental health & well-being) through regular contact and befriending.
• Improve their confidence, self-esteem and physical health.
• Improve their general life skills e.g., organising the home, cleaning, hygiene, etc.
• Access the specialist support they need to address the issues and barriers they are facing.
• Widen their network of relationships and access the health, social, leisure and educational opportunities available to them within the community.
• Manage budgets, debts and benefits much more effectively.
• Learn how to improve their home environment.

We also aim to benefit the general community by: –

• Providing volunteering opportunities
• Making better use of community resources
• Reducing pressures on NHS/Social services provision by improving mental health, well-being and physical health and creating healthy living environments
• Creating networks which promote community cohesion and integration

Policies

You can find a some of our policies listed below. These are in PDF format and can be downloaded from the website. If there is something specific you are looking for please contact us to find out more. 

With thanks to our partners and sponsors