Trustees Vacancies Recruitment
Hear Us Board of Directors/Trustees
Are you someone who has had an experience of mental distress and/or using mental health services?
Are you interested in being a Trustee of an independent mental health charity run by survivors and service users?
Hear Us has been running for over 20 Years as a not-for-profit organisation in Croydon. On 15th April 2010, Hear Us registered with the Charity Commission for charity status to give Hear Us a more independent and stronger voice in the community of Croydon.
Hear Us want to build a well-balanced and rounded board, hear us is looking for trustees with experience
Lived Mental Ill Health
Social Media and Marketing
Fundraising and Income Generation
Human Resources
Data Protection
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Financial Management and Strategy
We are looking for new trustees to join our committed and friendly Board. The Board appoints independent Trustees from a wide range of backgrounds and walks of life. Our membership elects member Trustees to ensure that all our work is grounded in the insight, practice, and ambitions of the organisations who make up our membership work directly with people and communities.
We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly encourage applications from people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, disabled people and people from the LGBT+ community with skills in the areas identified above as we work towards becoming a fully representative Board.
We currently run the following projects
Welfare Rights Advice Project (WRAP)
WRAP has helped thousands of vulnerable people make and maintain benefit claims. We also attend assessments and have won over 100% ESA & PIP tribunals. We support claimants to maintain their Online Universal Credit (UC) Claims, which is a major obstacle, as many of our clients are illiterate or have no computer experience. We address immediate financial poverty through access to food banks and Discretionary Payments. Currently, we work very closely with Mind’s Welfare Benefits service and have close relationships with SLaM, Croydon Council and the DWP.
Linkworking Project
This project has been running for 17 years. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, we currently run sessions weekly on the inpatient wards at the Bethlem Royal Hospital and in the community resource centres, Jennette Wallace House and Queens Resource Centre. These sessions are followed by a handover with ward/service managers to address immediate needs. Our project supports service users to understand their treatment, and services available to them and brings hope during dark and difficult times, in fact, many of our team joined after coming into contact with the project themselves. Our outcomes and qualitative data provide insight for the ICB and have a positive impact on local commissioning.
Engagement & Campaigns
The following Projects will fall under the umbrella of Engagement & Campaigns
Mental Health Open Forum
We run 10 Open Forums each year. It is designed for service users to come together in a safe environment to meet commissioners and Service Providers, giving them a chance to ask questions and debate current and topical issues/services relevant to their recovery and wellbeing. Our forums also attract large numbers of carers and professionals.
Campaigning
We aim to build a movement run and led by people with lived experience of mental ill health, representing all communities initially in Croydon. This movement will educate, inform, and influence change to improve the lives of some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals in our communities through awareness-raising and campaigning for improvements in public services and the wider community.
Reachout Challange
The purpose of this project is to reduce mental health stigma by training, supporting and informing public sector organisations and the wider community. We provide workshops and run stalls at events, where people with lived experience of mental health deliver them. We aim to educate and raise awareness around mental health and to encourage people to talk about their own mental wellbeing without shame, embarrassment or stigma.
Reachout Create
We will host 30 creative workshops over the next two years for adults with lived experience of a mental health condition. People of all skill levels are welcome to join in the fun!