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BLINK MENTAL HEALTH Trustees’ annual report

Contents

01

02

Welcome Why we exist

03

04

2023 to 2024 goals Achieving our goals

05

06

Our impact: Our impact: in numbers in words

07

07 08 Our volunteers Accounting information

Welcome to our second annual report

Our journey so far

Why blink was born

Blink - The Mental Health Campaign (also known as “blink”) was registered as a charity in October 2021.

This second annual report covers the 2023 to 2024 financial year, from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

In 2020, as the global pandemic began to unfold, we saw the devastating impact that COVID-19 was having on people’s mental health.

Our story is deeply personal, but sadly far from unique. blink was founded by Mike and Nicole, two people who desperately needed mental health support.

Two people, who like thousands of others, found the courage to reach out and ask for help.

Two people, who like thousands of others, would be told they’re not unwell enough , or too unwell, to get support.

We knew then that our services and ethos were needed more than ever before. We were determined to build on the momentum and success of the work we were doing – reaching more people and changing more lives for the better.

Two people, who like thousands of others, faced unnecessary barriers, assessments, uncertainty, and waiting times – to then be considered ‘the lucky ones’ for being offered help at all.

This isn’t good enough. This is why blink was born. This is why blink is so desperately needed.

Meet our trustees

A few words from Mike McAdam

Co-founder and trustee

25 October 2021 Michael McAdam to present 25 October 2021 Tamsin Watson to present 14 April 2024 to Maria Dimouli present

“I’m continuously blown away by the talent and kindness of the whole blink team – their dedication to removing the shame and stigma around mental health, and perpetual commitment to providing much-needed support – is ultimately changing lives for the better.

The period April 2023 to March 2024 saw lasting financial repercussions of COVID-19 for the events industry, and very limited growth in income for blink.

Despite these challenges, we’ve attended more festivals and helped more people than ever before; widened our volunteer pool; increased our online presence; and strengthened our foundations and operational processes to better equip us for the future. A huge thank you to each and every volunteer, and I can’t wait to see what we achieve together next.”

Why we exist

Our mission

Our purpose

We provide safe and open spaces for people to receive professional mental health support, where they can be heard, connect with others, and reconnect with themselves.

We’re passionate about improving the mental health and wellbeing of individuals in need of support, by providing professional treatment and peer-to-peer support.

We also offer tools and knowledge at public and private events to help people maintain positive mental health.

In designing our offering, our trustees have taken due care to refer to guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit.

2023 to 2024 goals

As a young charity, we’re committed to building upon our success since 2021, when we first registered. This means our three core goals remain the same , with an increased focus on learning, adapting and growing our impact.

We’ve also added a fourth goal this year, to reflect the work we’ve done to continue scaling blink safely, efficiently and effectively.

1

2

Make 1-2-1 therapy more accessible

Promote the work we do and reach more people

There are many potential barriers which prevent individuals from accessing the support that they need for their mental health.

Our single session therapy is designed to provide quick access to professional care, and to remove or minimise financial barriers, social stigma and waiting times.

We reach hundreds of people through our festival wellbeing programmes, which enables us to: support people with their mental health, recruit more volunteers, and build relationships with new donors.

Feedback from festival-goers show us that our services definitively change, and improve, people’s lives. We want more people to benefit from what blink offers.

3

4

Provide safe spaces for individuals and groups to talk about mental health

Alongside therapy sessions, we create a calm and inclusive space where people can relax, do mindful activities, or get further support for their mental health.

Improve our processes and training to help blink scale safely, efficiently and effectively

Based on qualitative and quantitative feedback, we’ve improved our volunteer recruitment process and training programme.

Our services are designed on traumainformed principles, helping us ensure that everyone using blink’s offering feels safe, validated, and able to be themselves.

We’ve also reached out to new festivals so we can use our learnings and experience so far to support more people than ever before with their mental health.

How we achieved goal 4 this year

The goal: improve our processes and training to help blink scale safely, efficiently and effectively.

Streamlining volunteer recruitment

Due to our presence at festivals and a growing awareness of blink both online and offline, we have more applicants interested in volunteering with us.

We’ve used volunteer feedback and industry best practices to optimise our recruitment process, making sure we bring only the most suitable people on board.

Refining volunteer training

Based on feedback, we’ve refined our existing training to:

1. help volunteers understand the role in-depth and see if they’re the right fit for blink, and

2. upskill our volunteers so they feel well-equipped and more prepared before their first festival.

Expanding our reach

We’ve grown our capacity at existing festivals and secured two additional festivals for the 2024/2025 season. This allows us to increase our impact across our other 3 goals, including:

• providing more therapy,

• supporting more people,

• promoting the work we do and the impact we have,

• recruiting more volunteers, and

• attracting more donors.

Our impact: in numbers

We’ve increased our impact across all our goals this year, attending 50% more festivals, delivering 36% more therapy sessions and supporting 56% more people in our chill-out spaces, compared to the data in our first annual report.

We’ve also seen continued organic growth and an increase in engagement across our website, social channels, and mailing list sign-ups.

From April 2023 to March 2024 we:

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attended
festivals [6]
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50% increase from period Oct ‘21 to March ’23

delivered 240 1-2-1 therapy sessions 36% increase from period Oct ‘21 to March ’23

supported 700 people in our chill-out space 56% increase from period Oct ‘21 to March ’23

Our impact: in words

Festival goers use our space to explore the benefits of therapy, connect and talk about their experiences, or to simply chill out in a non-judgmental and mindful environment.

We’re lucky enough to receive feedback and messages which show the lasting impact of our services on people’s wellbeing and mental health, which motivates us to keep growing and improving our offering.

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What festivals-goers say about blink
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“What I initially set the expectations to as, ‘low or let’s give a try,’ turned out to be one of the most life and direction-changing experiences I’ve had in years.

How grateful I am to blink to make this experience accessible and inviting to me is beyond my capacity to describe. From a heart on the path of healing, I say thank you.”

“The session allowed me to explore what, if anything, I’d be trying to get out of therapy, and therefore how exactly it could benefit me. Before, I had the misconception that therapy was primarily about alleviating a suffering or learning new coping behaviours.

However, in talking with the blink therapist, I began to see that therapy could help me with understanding how various psychological mechanisms I’ve developed might be limiting my present mindset towards relationship building.”

“I was really sad for the first 2 days of the festival and having a constant feeling of wanting to cry. After just one session with your lovely therapist I managed to have a different understanding and come out of that feeling, which made me enjoy the rest of the festival and understand myself better.”

Our volunteers

As a volunteer-led charity, we’re committed to using our funding efficiently to reach the largest audience possible. As well as our volunteer trustees who set our strategy and oversee our work, we’ve built a wonderful team of 95 passionate volunteers in various roles. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to provide our life-changing services.

Our volunteer roles include:

Fully-qualified and experienced therapists , who deliver therapy sessions at festivals, offer debriefing to other volunteers, and provide clinical input into our policies and procedures.

Wellbeing support volunteers , many with lived experience of mental health challenges or sector experience (like social workers, doctors, nurses, substance misuse workers and so on). They’re involved in everything from putting up our tents, welcoming visitors to our space, and providing an inclusive environment. Whatever their background, they help us make sure blink’s festival offering is a success, and we appreciate every single one of them.

• Year-round volunteers , who support blink with essential project management, admin, fundraising, social media management, content creation and website maintenance.

We’re proud of our volunteer experience and continuously improve using feedback

Many of our volunteers attend multiple festivals in a season, and return to volunteer yearon-year. We onboard people who are passionate about our mission, and in turn, provide a rewarding experience for them. We make sure that every volunteer is carefully vetted, trained and supported to meet the expectations of their volunteer role.

Accounting information for period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024

These accounts have been prepared by the Trustees in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015).

Statement on Reserves

Amount held in reserves: £0

We operate as a small charity with a strong commitment to our mission. Due to very low operating costs and low income, our financial resources are primarily directed toward sustaining our ongoing programs and initiatives. As a result, we may not maintain substantial reserves, and any available funds are typically allocated to immediate programmatic needs. However, we our aim is to increase our reserves over the next couple of years.

Details of fund materially in deficit

Most of our income in 2021 was received prior to registering as a formal charity. Therefore, our accounts, below, report we made a financial loss for the period of this annual report. However, we did enter the financial year 2023/2024 without making a loss, which will be reported in our next Trustees’ Annual Report.

Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern

N/A

Statement of Financial Activities for period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024

Receipts and payments

Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

blink the mental health campaign c/o Berkeley Homes Project Office Beresford Street SE18 6BG www.blinkmentalhealth.org.uk [e-mail]