My Time CIC - providing culturally and faith specific mental health services

April 2009

Futurebuilders invested £125,000 in My Time CIC to fund the costs associated with developing it as a Centre of Excellence to build on its capacity to deliver counselling and self esteem building services in Birmingham.

Through Futurebuilders we were able to invest time and funds in our core which grants don’t traditionally do, this was really useful in enabling us to tender competently to commissioners.

About the organisation

My Time is a Community Interest Company that provides counselling and confidence building services from its base in Small Heath, Birmingham. It provides culturally and faith sensitive mental health services predominantly to asylum seekers, refugees and those that face social exclusion.

My Time was developed through research into the effects of informal education on levels of self esteem among people experiencing depression and anxiety. In response to this research My Time developed an educational programme that could meet the needs of people facing barriers to their personal development including depression and anxiety through programmes of support in a community setting. My Time is able to distinguish itself from other counselling services through its ability to offer counselling provision in a number of different languages – a necessity in the diverse and multi-cultural nature of Birmingham.

Business Development Manager William Lilley asserts that “the philosophy of My Time is to make therapeutic interventions such as counselling more accessible, more culturally sensitive and more available in the public domain and because of the Futurebuilders investment we have been able to sustain that effort.”

How Futurebuilders helped

My Time received a Full Investment of £125,000 from Futurebuilders. The purpose of this investment was to help develop My Time as a Centre of Excellence. This involved strengthening the organisation’s core by developing internal infrastructure such as a new website, the implementation of professional quality standards and new telephone and computer monitoring systems. Effectively this investment was aimed at developing additional capacity to build on existing public sector contracts and to secure new ones.

William explains that My Time “looked to Futurebuilders for an investment because we were impressed by the package of support they provided and the expertise that came with it for organisations in the not for profit sector who would traditionally struggle to get support through other channels”.

“Through Futurebuilders we were able to invest time and funds in our core which grants don’t traditionally do, this was really useful in enabling us to tender competently to commissioners.”

Increasing confidence among commissioners

My Time has increased its capacity to tender for and win contracts. It has been extremely successful in securing contracts and subsequently reaching an increasing number of people across Birmingham. Through developing its quality standards My Time has been able to prove to commissioners that it is able to withstand future growth.

“The Futurebuilders investment has helped us sustain long term plans of having a competent standard to deliver our services and to most importantly, give quality assurances to commissioners. We now have a robust administration, robust financial management and robust quality assurances.”

Success

My Time is now delivering services in 15 GPs in the heart of Birmingham, 24 Children’s Centres (South East Birmingham, Solihull, Reddish and Bromsgrove) and has increased staff numbers to 16, with 8 jobs starting since January 2009.

There are many individual success stories because of My Time’s services - participants have gone on to employment, and to further and higher education. Some have radically changed their lives by tackling issues such as domestic violence and made a completely new start, others have been able to find a direction and focus on achieving their goals.

My Time have incorporated gardening as part its theraputic services

The people driving My Time operate under a recognised passion and a clear commitment to what they do. This and the much needed core strengthening have allowed My Time to grow into a successful social enterprise with a demonstrable track record of securing and retaining public sector contracts.

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