VCSE collaboration highlights
The latest Lambeth Living Well Collaborative breakfast saw an excellent turnout from community members, VCSE partners and system colleagues, reflecting the strength of our growing partnership approach to improving mental health outcomes in Lambeth.
Living Well Network Alliance (LWNA) Collaborative breakfast is a partnership forum that brings together organisations and stakeholders to share updates, strengthen relationships, identify opportunities for collaboration, and work collectively to improve outcomes for local residents. The collaborative provides a space to discuss priorities, exchange good practice, and coordinate activity across the sector.
Paul Calaminus, Chief Executive Officer of SLaM, attended to introduce himself, engage directly with community and VCSE colleagues, and join everyone for the community breakfast, creating valuable opportunities for connection and conversation.
The session focused on the importance of working relationally with communities and the voluntary sector to address mental health inequalities, strengthen partnership working, and ensure community voices help shape service design and improvement.
Members also heard updates on suicide prevention work in Lambeth, discussed housing challenges affecting people experiencing mental health difficulties, explored how lived experience and carer voices can be better reflected in services, and received a powerful presentation from Isha Daley on culturally responsive care and Black maternal mental health.
Find out more about Living Well Network Alliance - Lambeth Together
Colleagues attended the latest Lambeth Can Move network session to represent SLaM alongside a well-attended gathering of partners from across Lambeth's voluntary, community, public and physical activity sectors.
Lambeth Can Move is a borough-wide movement focused on reducing inequalities in physical activity and improving wellbeing through community-led approaches, with investment targeted towards children and young people, women and girls, and ageing well.
Discussions highlighted the power of relationships as the foundation of successful community work, recognising that many of the strongest partnerships are built face-to-face over years and are often more personal than structural. There was also valuable reflection on the barriers to collaboration, including competition for funding and audiences, alongside a shared recognition that stronger cross-sector relationships are key to creating healthier and more connected communities.
It was particularly valuable to bring a mental health perspective into conversations that closely align with prevention, wellbeing, social connection and reducing inequalities.
Find out more about Lambeth Can Move Lambeth Can Move
