Mind Active Supporting Older People Across South East Northumberland With Newcastle Building Society Backing

An award-winning south east Northumberland charity which works to enhance the lives of older people across the area has received a four-figure funding boost from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund at the Community Foundation.

Mind Active seeks to complement and build on activities available within residential homes, and to enable people living in their own homes with debilitating conditions such as dementia to continue as part of the community.

The Bedlington-based organisation, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, operates across the Castle Morpeth, Wansbeck and Blyth Valley, and delivers a wide variety of events and activities which promote inclusion through mental stimulation.

These range from exercise sessions, fellowship groups, concerts, picnics and school and animal visits through to trips out to local attractions such as Alnwick Garden and Plessey Woods.

Mind Active is now using the £3,000 Newcastle Building Society grant to help meet the growing costs of providing its services in light of the continuing cost of living crisis and to pay for a series of lunch clubs with different kinds of entertainment.

The funding is being provided through the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund at the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, which offers grants to charities and community groups located in or around the communities served by the Society’s branch network.

As well as working directly with local older people, Mind Active also works with bereaved carers and families for as long as they feel they need its support.

An advisory panel which includes beneficiaries and their families, helps to shape the charity’s services to ensure that they are meeting the needs of those that receive them.

The charity’s work is delivered with the help of around a dozen volunteers, including Vannessa Hudson of Newcastle Building Society, who spent an initial two days working with the charity under the Society’s policy of enabling staff to spend time supporting local good causes and has stayed involved with it ever since.

Mind Active’s founder Stephen Ward says: “Many of the inclusive practices that are commonplace in residential homes today had never been heard of when we began introducing them 20 years ago, but the benefits to our beneficiaries, their families and care staff became very clear very quickly.

“Keeping active, both mentally and physically, is the key to our beneficiaries feeling they are still valuable members of society and all the activities we organise are designed to help to achieve this goal.

“We try to make use of outdoor spaces and places whenever the weather allows, with the fresh air and change in their surrounding environment being stimulating for everyone, and it really increases the connection that our guests and beneficiaries feel with their local communities.

“The transformations that we often see from sleepy inactive residents to vibrant, lively and socially interactive people shows how much of a difference our approach can make, and as we celebrate our 20th year, we’re looking to keep doing as much as we can to make a difference to the lives of our older local residents and their families.

“The funding we’ve received from Newcastle Building Society has come along just at the right time, especially with the cost of delivering our work continuing to rise, and it’ll make a big difference to what we can do.”

Vannessa Hudson, secretarial administrator at Newcastle Building Society, adds: “Mind Active’s proactive approach and the longstanding commitment of its team are clearly having a hugely positive impact across local communities and we’re very pleased to be able to be supporting such an effective and impressive charity.”
Since its launch in 2016, Newcastle Building Society’s Community Fund at the Community Foundation has also contributed over £2.3m in grants and partnerships to a wide variety of charities and projects across the region, including the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and the Prince’s Trust.
The grants are so far estimated to have had a positive impact on more than 151,000 people.