Blake Morgan appoints Solent Mind as the Portsmouth Office’s Charity of the Year

Leading national law firm Blake Morgan has announced the appointment of Solent Mind as their charity of the year in Portsmouth.

Solent Mind provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. The charity campaigns to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding of mental health issues.

The charity has been selected as Blake Morgan’s chosen office charity for Portsmouth for the next two years. Staff in the firm’s Portsmouth office are already busy planning a calendar of events to raise funds for the charity with all money raised helping to facilitate projects run through the charity wellbeing centres in Fareham, Gosport and Portsmouth.

The charity provides a range of support services to the local community from workshops on wellbeing, assertiveness recovery and resilience through to yoga sessions, running groups, poetry, football groups and art therapy. Solent Mind also works with local schools in Fareham and Gosport offering support to young people experiencing mental health issues.

Staff at Blake Morgan kick started their fundraising efforts with a Pride themed bake sale in September while James Wilson, Jack Wiseman, Tobias Prowling and Chloe Simpson took part in the Great South Run to raise funds locally and nationally for the charity.

Victoria Hall, Head of Business and Corporate Relations at the charity, said: “We are thrilled that Blake Morgan has chosen Solent Mind as their charity partner for the next two years. Solent Mind provides mental health services, information and advice to a vast number of individuals across Hampshire. Having an organisation such as Blake Morgan recognise the value of our work by supporting us with both fundraising and raising awareness of mental health will help us to continue to provide this vital support to our local community.”

Sadak Miah, Regional Senior Partner for the South Coast said: “We are pleased to announce our partnership with Solent Mind.  We will be aiming not only to raise funds but also to raise awareness of mental health and how staff can look after their wellbeing.  Blake Morgan have mental health first aiders in every office and we are looking forward to working with Solent Mind to promote our wellbeing strategy. We want to help our employees to feel  comfortable about talking about their mental health at work.”

The announcement comes after the office raised over £5,000 for Football for Cancer over the past two years.  Amongst other things this helped the charity open a shop and supported it in providing over 80 grants to families local to Blake Morgan’s Portsmouth office.