Welcome to our newsletter for Our Free Minds’ members and their families. We will publish our newsletter every quarter this year.
Let’s welcome our spring with a family walk! We will meet at 2pm on Sunday 6th April at Martinsell Hill car park. Parents responsible, siblings welcome, no charge or tickets required. Please RSVP with us so we know to wait for you before setting off.
To bring some warmth to this winter, we hosted a movie event in the last week of our term. Penguins of Madagascar was the film chosen through a poll on WhatsApp. By the end of our daily session on the 11th February, participants arrived and we sat down together in our Quiet Space, with snacks and popcorn around the screen. It was a wonderful afternoon with lots of laughter!
A local theatre came to Our Free Minds to present us The Snow Queen show on the 19th December, the last day of our term in 2024. The three actors brought the story to life in such a relaxed and interactive manner, that it was like a mini-panto for us. Both big and small people enjoyed it throughout.
We went on to spend the rest of the afternoon sharing food and chatting with each other at our Christmas party. More than fifty people attended.
Thank you for coming and supporting the Christmas show which was also a fundraising event. We raised £350 for Our Free Minds after paying the theatre.
We had our first ever easyfundraising week in January, helping to promote usage of this simple, costless way to raise funds. We now have nine extra people signed up, representing a 25% increase. The first donations following the campaign have started to come in. For example, a recent booking at Butlins generated a £5 donation!
Don’t forget to use the Apps or website for your upcoming online shopping. Please also share the link with your friends - https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/our-free-minds/.
The fireworks event at the Burbage Scout Hut on the 2nd November 2024 was a big success. We raised £1029.35 for Our Free Minds! This was a huge achievement given that the profits were shared between five local charities. Thank you to all who came and helped, and to those who attended!
For people who prefer to donate goods rather than cash, we created a "wishlist" on Amazon: https://amzn.eu/0xIVJjw. Please share it with family or friends, or donate something yourselves. Thank you!
We are in the process of ordering the last pieces of furniture for our quiet space - a desk and a set of bookshelves.
We will volunteer our time over the February term break to give the space a spring clean. You are very welcome to join us:
One of our teen members, Eva, organised an art exhibition as part of her Silver Arts Award qualification on 22nd November 2024. The theme was Music and the Concept of the Self. Exhibitors ranged from 13 to 77 years of age and from all over the country and beyond. She was thrilled to see all the people who came to the exhibition, and was rightly proud when all the planning and effort came to fruition.
We currently have spaces available on the Arts Award programme. We offer either Bronze or Silver Award (level 1 or 2 equivalent). For more information, please see: https://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=64
We submitted our first ever Annual Report to the Charity Commission! Please scroll to the end of this page https://ourfreeminds.org/mission-and-policies to see it.
We are recruiting for one more trustee or task force leader: especially those who are able to specialise in finding investors to support us in our hunt for a permanent home. Please contact us at info@ourfreeminds.org if you would like to be considered for any of these positions.
Apart from the above official roles, there are endless other ways you can help us, like offering skill share sessions. Thank you to Louise Montague who came to our sessions to share her street dance skills with us in February. It was fun!
If you are (or if you know anyone who is) happy to contribute in sharing skills or other areas, e.g. administration, marketing, financial advice, legal advice, provision of storage for our resources, fundraising, looking for a permanent location or other resources, business management… please get in touch!
We find that members who attend multiple days per week are more settled and involved in the community. As such, our medium term goal for the future is to have members attending at least two sessions per week.