The Social Hub Connecting Choices

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Connecting Choices



Who We Are

Starfish Services deliver Social Hubs and linked Volunteer Training as part of the Connecting Choices. The BBO Connecting Choices Project Social Hubs in Stoke on Trent and North Staffordshire, and the participants they support, are funded through the European Social Fund and Big Lottery Fund. The project aims to work with 1,784 unemployed and economically inactive people aged 19+ to provide holistic support to help them progress into training, education, volunteering and work.

The Social Hub is a face-to-face social network offering a fresh approach to mental health and wellbeing, now available to those participants accessing the Connecting Choices Project in Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire Moorlands.

What We Offer: A wide range of recreational activities - walks, cinema visits, coffee mornings, day trips, and social outings; structured groups to help maintain mental health recovery, such as Choose to Change, Create and Talk and Wellness Workshops; as well as a range of opportunities for volunteering.

Volunteer with us: We encourage people with an interest in or with a lived experience of emotional distress to volunteer with us as we see this experience as valuable to supporting others in the community as well as to their own recovery. Being a volunteer with Starfish is very rewarding and gives people the skills and experience to transfer into a range of work roles. We provide full training for all our volunteers in our Level 2 accredited Open College Network course in “Supporting People in Recovery.” This is a 12 week course which teaches people the skills and knowledge to become a volunteer Recovery Practitioner to deliver groups for the Social Hub and support people in their local community. All our volunteers are fully DBS checked.

Starfish Services are included in the Connecting Choices project as a ‘Specialist Intervention’ which means we will not be involved in referring people onto the programme, this is the role of the generalist and specialist end-to-end service partners. Therefore, if you would like to get onto the programme and access our service then please contact:

What can people achieve from attending the Social Hub?
1. Engage in activities in their local community.
2. Meet new people and make new friends.
3. Improve mental health and social health.
4. Find out more about volunteering.
5. Achieve a Level 2 OCN qualification in 'Supporting People in Recovery' and become a volunteer, helping to deliver groups in their local community.
6. Build confidence and motivation to help them consider moving towards work by volunteering, gaining valuable experience and skills which can then be used to gain employment in the future.


Information for Service Partners:
Alternatively, if you are a service partner and want to know more about what we offer please contact us on:
Address: Unit 14, Dudson Centre, 58-60 Hope Street, Stock-on-Trent, ST1 5BS
Telephone: 01782 683136
Email: info@thesocialhub.org.uk
Website: www.thesocialhub.org.uk
Twitter: @TheSocialHub111
Facebook: /thesocialhub111