Michelle Baharier
CoolTan arts needs your help
Fundraising for Cooltan Arts
Story
This is my fundraising page for our sponsored walk in 2007.
The page for the 2010 can be found at:
www.justgiving.com/michelle-baharier.
Previous pages are:
2009: www.justgiving.com/Michelle-Baharier09
2008: www.justgiving.com/michellebaharier1
Thank you for visiting my fundraising page. Please dig deep and sponsor me online.
Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Cooltan Arts will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.
So please sponsor me now! Did you know 1 million Londoner's are currently experiencing mental illness with out access to services, of which 56,000 of these people live in Southwark. In fact Southwark and Lambeth have the highest numbers of people experiencing mental distress from any were in Western Europe. Mental illness stops you functioning and disrupts your ability to function and do everyday things such as getting up, cleaning your teeth making food cleaning and it can happen to any one, people with mental illness are often invisible venerable adults and we need to help them as it could easily be you. please help me reach my £10,000 target.
Cooltan Arts exists to inspire well-being and creativity through artistic activity. It is run by and for people experiencing mental distress. We aim to promote positive mental health/well being, bringing about a change in how participants perceive themselves, enable people to gain greater focus and to re-establish their relationship with society. www.cooltanarts.org.uk
So please sponsor me now! And plase come to Cooltan's next exhibition, Brainwave - the private view is on Wednesday 26 September, from 6 - 9 pm, at Unit B, 237 Walworth Road, London SE17 (just south of Elephant and Castle). The exhibition will be launched by our patron, the painter Maggi Hambling, who's well worth hearing.
I run CoolTan Arts, a mental health charity working in the
London Borough of Southwark, and we need to raise money to help all the people in London who have mental illness. One million Londoners are experiencing mental illness with no access to services and 56,000 of these live in Southwark.
Many thanks for your support and generosity .
Michelle
www.michellebaharier.co.uk It's my life What a difference a World Mental Health Day makes Clare Allan Wednesday October 3, 2007 The Guardian World Mental Health Day is a week away. Started by the World Federation for Mental Health in 1992, the aim of the day is to educate the public on relevant issues concerning mental health. Since 1994, the days have been themed, with kits provided to organisations wishing to plan events and activities. This year's theme is "mental health in a changing world: the impact of culture and diversity", a subject that acquires additional resonance when you learn of the varied countries taking part. National campaigns will be taking place across the globe from Norway to New Zealand, as well as thousands of smaller-scale activities. On the tiny Pacific island of Palau, the government will for a week be printing a mental health message on its pay stubs; at the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, a week of activities and educational events is organised each year. In the UK, as well as national campaigns, World Mental Health Day provides an opportunity for hundreds of small charities and unsung service providers to draw attention to the work they do, and to mental health issues in general. Inevitably, many will use the occasion also to try to raise money. Like siblings in a huge and impoverished family, non-statutory organisations, charities and other voluntary groups face a constant battle for survival. So scarce are available resources that the merest whiff of possible funds finds applicants contorting themselves to meet the attached criteria, however far removed from their basic objectives. But the services provided by these organisations are far from superfluous. They often provide the essential factor in helping individuals remain in the community. In purely financial terms they save the NHS a fortune. In human terms their input is incalculable. Cooltan Arts, based in Southwark, south London, is just one such organisation. Deriving its name from the suntan lotion manufacturer, in whose former factory the project originally squatted, Cooltan Arts now rents its own premises in the heart of a borough that together with neighbouring Lambeth boasts, according to Simon Hughes MP, "the highest number of people with mental distress in the whole of western Europe". Run by and for people "with mental distress" the project offers free workshops taught by professional and practising artists, including art classes, poetry, creative writing, web design, video, yoga and drumming. There is also an independent gallery where artwork is exhibited and sold. With a strong track record of helping people back into work and college, Cooltan Arts last year received 334 applications from would-be participants, but a lack of sufficient funding led to more than 200 being turned away. Like many small mental health organisations, Cooltan Arts keeps its head above water by the force of the director's will. Charming, ruthless and impossible to ignore, Michelle Baharier, its director, invited me to visit earlier this year "to have a look around and see what we're about". By the time I left, inspired and buzzing from the electric energy of the place, I found that I'd agreed to be a patron, joining the more illustrious likes of artist Maggi Hambling and writer Ali Smith (ensnared, one presumes, by similar means), to do a reading from my novel to help raise funds, write a piece to help raise awareness, do a sponsored walk . . . the list goes on. For World Mental Health Day, or rather month as it turns out, Cooltan Arts' plans are typically ambitious. In contrast to my local psychiatric unit, which is planning nothing, the Cooltan Arts Celebration of Wellbeing comprises, at the last count, a Brainwave art exhibition, to be opened by Hambling, an open mike poetry and film night, a Big Draw for Wellbeing, an arts and crafts fair, a private view of work by conceptual artist Sarah Crew, and a sponsored walk celebrating wellbeing to be held on October 13 (a "circular jolly" starting at the Maudsley hospital, south London, via the Tate Modern). "Our patrons will be walking the walk," says the website. Who am I to disagree? Clare Allan is a writer and novelist. cooltanarts.org.uk ·Email your comments to society@guardian.co.uk. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication"
The page for the 2010 can be found at:
www.justgiving.com/michelle-baharier.
Previous pages are:
2009: www.justgiving.com/Michelle-Baharier09
2008: www.justgiving.com/michellebaharier1
Thank you for visiting my fundraising page. Please dig deep and sponsor me online.
Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Cooltan Arts will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.
So please sponsor me now! Did you know 1 million Londoner's are currently experiencing mental illness with out access to services, of which 56,000 of these people live in Southwark. In fact Southwark and Lambeth have the highest numbers of people experiencing mental distress from any were in Western Europe. Mental illness stops you functioning and disrupts your ability to function and do everyday things such as getting up, cleaning your teeth making food cleaning and it can happen to any one, people with mental illness are often invisible venerable adults and we need to help them as it could easily be you. please help me reach my £10,000 target.
Cooltan Arts exists to inspire well-being and creativity through artistic activity. It is run by and for people experiencing mental distress. We aim to promote positive mental health/well being, bringing about a change in how participants perceive themselves, enable people to gain greater focus and to re-establish their relationship with society. www.cooltanarts.org.uk
So please sponsor me now! And plase come to Cooltan's next exhibition, Brainwave - the private view is on Wednesday 26 September, from 6 - 9 pm, at Unit B, 237 Walworth Road, London SE17 (just south of Elephant and Castle). The exhibition will be launched by our patron, the painter Maggi Hambling, who's well worth hearing.
I run CoolTan Arts, a mental health charity working in the
London Borough of Southwark, and we need to raise money to help all the people in London who have mental illness. One million Londoners are experiencing mental illness with no access to services and 56,000 of these live in Southwark.
Many thanks for your support and generosity .
Michelle
www.michellebaharier.co.uk It's my life What a difference a World Mental Health Day makes Clare Allan Wednesday October 3, 2007 The Guardian World Mental Health Day is a week away. Started by the World Federation for Mental Health in 1992, the aim of the day is to educate the public on relevant issues concerning mental health. Since 1994, the days have been themed, with kits provided to organisations wishing to plan events and activities. This year's theme is "mental health in a changing world: the impact of culture and diversity", a subject that acquires additional resonance when you learn of the varied countries taking part. National campaigns will be taking place across the globe from Norway to New Zealand, as well as thousands of smaller-scale activities. On the tiny Pacific island of Palau, the government will for a week be printing a mental health message on its pay stubs; at the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, a week of activities and educational events is organised each year. In the UK, as well as national campaigns, World Mental Health Day provides an opportunity for hundreds of small charities and unsung service providers to draw attention to the work they do, and to mental health issues in general. Inevitably, many will use the occasion also to try to raise money. Like siblings in a huge and impoverished family, non-statutory organisations, charities and other voluntary groups face a constant battle for survival. So scarce are available resources that the merest whiff of possible funds finds applicants contorting themselves to meet the attached criteria, however far removed from their basic objectives. But the services provided by these organisations are far from superfluous. They often provide the essential factor in helping individuals remain in the community. In purely financial terms they save the NHS a fortune. In human terms their input is incalculable. Cooltan Arts, based in Southwark, south London, is just one such organisation. Deriving its name from the suntan lotion manufacturer, in whose former factory the project originally squatted, Cooltan Arts now rents its own premises in the heart of a borough that together with neighbouring Lambeth boasts, according to Simon Hughes MP, "the highest number of people with mental distress in the whole of western Europe". Run by and for people "with mental distress" the project offers free workshops taught by professional and practising artists, including art classes, poetry, creative writing, web design, video, yoga and drumming. There is also an independent gallery where artwork is exhibited and sold. With a strong track record of helping people back into work and college, Cooltan Arts last year received 334 applications from would-be participants, but a lack of sufficient funding led to more than 200 being turned away. Like many small mental health organisations, Cooltan Arts keeps its head above water by the force of the director's will. Charming, ruthless and impossible to ignore, Michelle Baharier, its director, invited me to visit earlier this year "to have a look around and see what we're about". By the time I left, inspired and buzzing from the electric energy of the place, I found that I'd agreed to be a patron, joining the more illustrious likes of artist Maggi Hambling and writer Ali Smith (ensnared, one presumes, by similar means), to do a reading from my novel to help raise funds, write a piece to help raise awareness, do a sponsored walk . . . the list goes on. For World Mental Health Day, or rather month as it turns out, Cooltan Arts' plans are typically ambitious. In contrast to my local psychiatric unit, which is planning nothing, the Cooltan Arts Celebration of Wellbeing comprises, at the last count, a Brainwave art exhibition, to be opened by Hambling, an open mike poetry and film night, a Big Draw for Wellbeing, an arts and crafts fair, a private view of work by conceptual artist Sarah Crew, and a sponsored walk celebrating wellbeing to be held on October 13 (a "circular jolly" starting at the Maudsley hospital, south London, via the Tate Modern). "Our patrons will be walking the walk," says the website. Who am I to disagree? Clare Allan is a writer and novelist. cooltanarts.org.uk ·Email your comments to society@guardian.co.uk. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication"