First of its kind training partnership announced between Southern Co-op and Solent Mind

As 15^th May marked the start of Mental Health Awareness Week, Southern Co-op and Solent Mind have entered into a first of its kind partnership for the local mental health charity.

The partnership aims to ensure all managers throughout Southern Co-op, which provides retail, funeral and coffee services across the south, are in the best position to talk to and care for their employee’s mental health. This will include training sessions as well as content created by Solent Mind for its eLearning platforms.

Helen Johnson, Southern Co-op’s Colleague Wellbeing Manager, said: “Mental health is an incredibly important part of everyone’s life which we all need to actively address. We wanted to build on the work we started last year when we launched bespoke eLearning modules to raise awareness on this topic.

“Community is also a huge part of what we do at Southern Co-op so it’s really uplifting that this partnership will also support such a valuable local charity, Solent Mind, and help us on our continued journey. The team quickly provided us with expertise, insight and enthusiasm. It’s great to work collaboratively and lead a positive change through our shared interests by working together.”

The training and content creation will be led by Solent Mind’s workplace wellbeing training team, who delivered over 100 mental health training courses to organisations across Hampshire in 2022/23.

Mandy Wiltshire, Solent Mind’s workplace wellbeing training manager, said: “We have delivered training sessions to many organisations throughout Hampshire, but this partnership with Southern Co-op is allowing us to have a greater impact on the whole organisation.

“Our resources will continue to be available to managers and others within the organisation far beyond the end of our training sessions.”

To celebrate the partnership, Southern Co-op’s Chief Executive Mark Smith hosted Solent Mind’s CEO Sally Arscott to discuss the partnership, and the impact it could have throughout the local community.

Sally Arscott, Solent Mind CEO, said: “I hope conversations on mental wellbeing are starting to happen at every level across your organisation. From managers through to their teams, and equally in stores, with staff talking to their customers in the same way.

“It is really impressive that you are encouraging people throughout to have these conversations and at Solent Mind, we are delighted to be able to help, supporting people to know how to discuss mental wellbeing in a proactive and positive way.”

Image courtesy of Unsplash.