Creative Options in Southampton
A message from Creative Options:
‘Creative Options’ was set up by Frances Heather in October 2012 to meet the needs of people with mental health issues living in the community.
A drop-in facility is being run at the Ropewalk in Derby Road on Wednesdays from 11 - 2 p.m. We provide tea and chat, I.T. sessions, crafts, games etc., and a facility for people to work on their own projects and develop their own interests. We run a monthly ‘cook n’ eat club, a ‘make n’ mend club where we do all aspects of sewing, knitting and crochet with tutors, plus new crafts, repairs, recycling materials and lessons on D.I.Y. We are also starting a monthly self-help group.
We have bi-monthly themed days and have subjects such as health awareness, with pampering etc, and music sessions. We are particularly keen to foster people’s own ideas and vision. We are hoping shortly to start ‘with a song in mind’, a singing group for mental health, headed up by one of our service users who is a pianist and former music teacher. We also run ‘tasty options bakin company’ providing freshly home-baked cakes and run two workshop sessions each week. A baking group meets at Challis Court Community Rooms on Thursdays at 1.30 p.m. We hope to provide catering for corporate events in the future and run our own afternoon tea service.
Our longer term vision is to have our own premises and run a community cafe run for and by service users and serving the whole community. We particularly need people with skills and interests to come and volunteer and share; especially those with previous experience in the health or social field. We also welcome service users as volunteers. If interested in getting involved please contact Frances on 07850198069 frances.anne@btinternet.com
