EKTA London - 2015 winner of the Marsh Award
Community support group for South Asian community members living in Harrow who are experiencing mental distress. EKTA was formed in 2008 with 20 members; it now has 100 members.
We received 42 nominations from across England.
Those nominated gave us a true sense of what people get from peer support: shared identity and acceptance, increased self-confidence, the value of helping others, developing and sharing skills, improved wellbeing, and challenging stigma and discrimination through campaigning.
An independent panel of others running peer organisations judged the nominations on principles that included: how inclusive projects were, whether projects were peer led by people with lived experience, and how inspiring, hopeful and empowering they were.
Commended projects
The Bridge Collective - South West
Peer led collective run by its users, supporting a range of groups and activities led by its members.
Open House - Nottingham, Midlands
Peer support group for those affected by depression, anxiety or any other maternal mental health problem. All women who facilitate the drop-ins, online support and additional charitable fundraising events have experienced perinatal mental health problems.
Mentally Sound Radio - North East
Monthly radio show - content sourcing, recording and editing, decision making, presenting, training, networking, even the admin such as policies and process documentation, developed and/or sourced it all as a team of peers.
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