Youth wellness charity moves to new office in Crewe town centre
By Alex Greensmith
1st May 2024 | Local News
There is a new home for a Crewe children's charity, which has relocated in the town centre.
Visyon, who champion youth mental health, have moved offices.
Formerly based in Breedon House in Crewe, Visyon has now moved into a new home on Forge Street.
Their cosy new premises is conveniently located close to Crewe Family Centre and Crewe Lifestyle Centre, the youth wellness charity has made 2024 the year of expanding in Crewe.
They have moved to a more affordable office, which is not shared unit unlike their previous office, so it is more comfortable for young people who may be anxious about opening up.
Crewe Nub News met with Visyon Fundraising and Marketing Manager Linda de Sa, at their new office of 6 Chantry Court, Forge Street, to find out more.
"Visyon is a children's mental health charity, we support young people from 11-18 across the Cheshire area," said Linda.
"We offer one-to-one counselling, mentoring, and workshops to support children's mental health and empower young people."
You don't need a referral from a GP or your school to access Visyon's services, secondary school pupils or their parents can call them directly to discuss your concerns and the support offered is completely free of charge.
"We have just launched Our Visyon in Crewe. Our Visyon is where a group of young people who have an interest in mental health get together, discuss mental health issues, and participate in wellness activities with one another.
"They can also have an input in how the charity operates, they are experts by experience we call them. They keep us in check, to know that we are supporting what young people think.
"We want to try and reach as many young people in Crewe as we can.
"To be able to do that, we need the funding, the more we raise awareness about being here as service, the more demand there will be and the more funding we will need to recruit in those positions."
From print material on anxiety, panic attacks, and self-harm, to workshops for parents, Visyon offer a wide array of services to create a society with better mental health for young people.
From April 2023 to March 2024, Visyon in Crewe offered 313 initial appointments to 225 children in Crewe.
It is there where Visyon meet with the young person plus their parent(s), and identify the support they can offer.
Following this, 225 mentoring sessions were held for 41 of those Crewe youngsters.
1357 one-to-one counselling sessions was offered to 187 young people in Crewe.
And these figures do not include work outside of their office.
As well as coming to their four counsellor rooms here, they provide on-site counselling as four schools in Crewe. With one Visyon counsellor available at Ruskin Community High School, St Thomas More Catholic High School, Sir William Stanier School and The Oaks Academy.
When asked about why it is important that charities like Visyon exists. Linda highlighted NHSDigital figures from before the pandemic revealed one in nine young people had a mental health condition.
That figure is now one in four. This stat is compounded by the cost of living crisis and increased pressures on young people in our modern world.
"Thank you to everyone in Crewe, Congleton and across Cheshire for their support," added Linda.
"My favourite part about my job as a fundraiser is seeing that money coming in knowing we have that security and stability to do the amazing things we do.
"We'd love to be able to grow, but fundraising in general across the sector is really difficult.
"23-24 was a difficult year, we are going to have a deficit. So 24-25 is really important to get that income in to maintain what we currently do.
"We are going to be launching some new corporate fundraising activities in Crewe over the next few months. One of those is sponsoring a counselling room. We will be asking £3000 to sponsor a counselling room."
As well as the year they moved into their new Crewe office, 2024 also marks Visyon's 30 years since the inception of the charity.
The Crewe team will also be taking on a Snowdon trek for the charity later this year.
Furthermore, they are encouraging members of the Crewe community to take on a skydive for the charity.
Visyon Crewe is located at 6 Chantry Court, Forge Street, Crewe, Cheshire, CW1 2DL.
Crewe: You can learn more about Visyon on their website.
READ MORE: Official opening date for new Crewe Bus Station confirmed.
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