Author : Molly Mayfield
Action East Devon celebrated Christmas together at the Hare & Hounds pub last week, enjoying a proper Christmas meal in their festive jumpers.
Staff, volunteers and trustees came together to eat and be merry.
We wish all the young people who we work with and their families a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We have received a very special donation from the Woodward Charitable Trust who have promised £1,200 towards core costs which are the essential funds we need to keep our charity ticking.
We are so grateful, thank you!
Last week we welcomed Gemma from Parent & Teen Conversations to speak to our Peer Support Groups in Axminster & Seaton, these groups came together for a special joint event.
Gemma delivered a workshop to our young people that encouraged and enabled them to look within themselves at their core beliefs and how these impact the way that they react and respond to situations. This was a really powerful exercise and it had a big impact on out young people.
Gemma’s clear and concise delivery as well as her personable approach really put our young people at ease and enabled them to be able to take something from it.
Thank you Gemma. We hope to welcome you back again in the future.
Jenny and Ange who head up our Headlight Group in Ottery St Mary have been busy these last few months. We always ensure that our groups get to experience a day away together called the Discovery Day and this year some members from the junior and senior groups went to visit the Donkey Sanctuary just outside Sidmouth for our Discovery Day this year.
They spent the morning learning all about the donkeys in their Centre and then got up close with a group of 20 donkeys where we had lots of time to stroke them and get to know them. Some of our members were “Donkey Whisperers” and constantly surrounded by donkeys.
We then created some activities for them where we made food chains by tying together their favorite snacks like apples, carrots and parsnips and hung them up in their stable.
We finished our morning off with some lunch. The donkeys had a really warm and calming nature to them and everyone left the sanctuary very relaxed.
Our groups then chose 2 donkeys through the sanctuaries adoption scheme and we have chosen to adopt Drizzle and Jimmy for the next year.
Special thanks to The Donkey Sanctuary Sidmouth
It’s OCD awareness week
OCD Awareness was launched by the International OCD Foundation. It aims to break the stigma around Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
If you have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), you have obsessive thoughts and compulsive rituals and behaviours.
Some facts about OCD.
✨️OCD affects 1 in 50 people in the UK.
✨️A mix of different factors can cause OCD.
✨️The usual treatment options for OCD are cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and medication.
✨️If you have OCD you may find that it affects areas of your life like work or relationships.
For more information about OCD Awareness Week, please visit the OCD Action website.
This week we celebrate Lola.
Lola has been working for us at Headlight for 5 years now and is an incredibly valued member of the team.
In those 5 years Lola has supported and helped countless young people on their mental health journeys as well as supporting Stacey, our Axminster group facilitator, and those before her, to be able to deliver invaluable peer support groups to our Axminster community.
It’s safe to say Headlight Axminster would not be what it is without her.
Alongside her work at Headlight, Lola also runs a successful Equine Assisted Therapy business where she uses her horses to compliment her wide range of skills.
As an experienced counsellor with a love of horses since a child, Lola has been able to combine her worlds and help people through their difficulties and challenges in life whilst supporting them, with the help of the horse, reach achievable outcomes.
Equine assisted therapy is a fast growing, alternative outdoor intervention that involves working on the ground with a trained mental health therapist, a horse and sometimes a horse handler depending on the chosen activities.
Horses can teach us a lot about ourselves, our relationships and importantly, communication, they accept us for who we are, they don’t wear masks, what you see is what you get.
“Connecting with my horses has encouraged skills that have helped me work more effectively with people. I believe learning ‘people skills’ through the lens of horse behaviour can help us explore our emotional triggers, together with the meaning behind our instinctual and emotional responses.”
Thank you Lola, keep shining!
We are so grateful to announce that we have been awarded the National Lottery, Awards for All Community Fund to support all 3 of our Headlight Peer support groups for the entire Autumn and up until the end of this year.
This will help to keep the vital work we are doing across Axminster, Seaton and Ottery St Mary going.
Thank you so much to each and every one of you that plays the national lottery and helped make this happen.
East Devon District Council (EDDC) has recognised the collaborative work done in 2023/24 by Parental Minds, HeadsUp and Action East Devon to help address the emotional and psychological needs of children and parents as they navigated life after the pandemic.
EDDC funded projects for two schools in Axminster with a mixture of services including:
- One-on-one and group counselling from qualified professionals.
- Training to become mental health ambassadors, increasing subject knowledge.
- Workshops for parents, fostering stronger family relationships and communication.
- Face to face and virtual support hubs – including self-sustaining peer support groups.
- Events, including parents’ coffee mornings, to raise awareness in informal settings.
- Training for teaching assistants.
- Lunch clubs.
- Phone support during half terms and holidays, to address feelings of isolation.
To find out more about these projects, visit the EDDC website.
