Last updated on 6 August 2025
Local Placed Based Giving scheme Kingston Giving has published two new accessible and friendly guides for people suffering with their mental health. The guides – ‘How are you doing?’ for adults and ‘What’s up?’ for teens and young people – are packed in information on how and where to find advice and support. The leaflets give details on coping tools to try, and list community cafés and other welcoming spaces to connect, relax, and find support in Kingston. The leaflets also include practical prompts for you to ‘check in’ with yourself and others and explore what might help.
The drive to develop these leaflets came from the ‘What Kingston Thinks’ report launched earlier this year. The report was produced following hundreds of interviews with residents about their views on living and working in the borough. Concerns over long waiting times for mental health care and accessing child and adolescent mental health services were rated at their highest priority.
“The journey has just started for Kingston Giving with the findings in terms of our strategy for the next three years” explains Hicky Kingsbury, Kingston Giving CEO. “We have set up a Task and Finish Group involving Kingston Council, the NHS, leading local mental health charities, together with people with lived experience.
“These leaflets – carefully developed by our team in consultation with people with both lived and practice experience, including experts from the NHS, Royal Borough of Kingston, and leading Kingston mental health charities – have the potential to change the lives of thousands of Kingston residents. We know from experience the difference they will make as they are following on from our essential ‘Hot Food, Warm Spaces’ leaflet that was also created in response to local need” adds Hicky Kingsbury.
Kingston Giving
Kingston Giving – previously Kingston Charitable Trust – connects residents and fosters collaboration across public, private, and voluntary sectors, empowering residents to tackle issues and inequalities across Kingston. Through grants giving and resource sharing, Kingston Giving’s purpose it to drive positive change.
Over the past 4 years, Kingston Giving has awarded £107,000 in grants, benefiting 57 organisations and over fifty thousand residents. Read more about their work in their 2024 Impact Report.
