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Washington Mind Annual Report 2023/24

Washington Mind is a Washington-based community mental health charity in its 43rd year, supporting 5,218 people in 2023/24 across counselling, social support, listening ear, training and digital wellbeing services. Its Life House hub received 27,956 visitors and handled 100,809 enquiries. The charity runs youth counselling in 6 schools, maintains Rays Corner suicide prevention resources in 700+ venues, and operates the Fans Supporting Fans Match Day Mental Health Hub at Sunderland AFC. All quality standards were maintained including BACP accreditation, Mind Quality Mark and CPD Standards Office. Washington Mind implemented an above-inflation pay rise for all staff despite sector-wide financial pressures.

Report snapshot
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About

Counselling (BACP accredited, Service Level Agreements with 6 schools, volunteer counsellor programme relaunched with 5 counsellors); Listening Ear one-to-one support; Social support groups (Women's Space, Connection Café, Lunch and Learn, Gardening Group); Exercise groups (Yoga, Flow to Sow, Trimmed Toned Toddlers); Online peer support; The Life House community hub; Young people's counselling and creative activities (Teenage Market, Bunker collaboration); Fans Supporting Fans / Match Day Mental Health Hub at Sunderland AFC; wellbeinginfo.org and youngpeopleswellbeing.org digital resources (Peer Support, Exam Stress, Bullying, SEND, Educational Transitions, Self-Help); Training (suicide prevention ALWL, mental health awareness, emotional resilience); Peer-led support group development Custom geography from upload: Washington, Sunderland and the Coalfields, Tyne and Wear, UK

Key Metrics

Key Metric 1 5,218 people received support; 100,809 enquiries; 1,274 new referrals; 27,956 visitors to the Life House; 7,403 counselling appointments
Key Metric 2 18,588 social support attendances; 557 Listening Ear appointments; 1,033 people attended training courses; 220 online support group members; 7,264 young people's activity attendees
Key Metric 3 1,750 Rays Corner visits; 2,342 crisis page visits; 106,686 unique visitors to wellbeinginfo.org; 25,922 unique visitors to Washington Mind website; Rays Corner resources now in 700+ venues across the city

Key Outcomes

  • 43 years of operation in 2023/24 — one of the North East's longest-running mental health charities; Fans Supporting Fans Match Day Hub endorsed by SAFC patron Gary Bennett; new Chair James Fildes (founder of Space North East) appointed
  • Above-inflation pay increase implemented for all staff; Living Wage employer; BACP service accreditation successfully renewed; Mind Quality Mark, BACP, CPD Standards Office and Mindful Employer quality standards all maintained
  • Washington Mind CIO with 500+ Friends membership; President Sharon Hodgson MP; wellbeinginfo.org SEND resources expanded; live chat service evaluated; 4,000+ people scanned Rays Corner QR codes

Geography

North East

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
Total income £18,180,000 and total expenditure £18,560,000 (year ended 31 December 2024, charity no. 1084958 England/Wales and SC039654 Scotland); in 2024 spent £3.8m on...
Key Metric 2
700+ members supported through in-person visits and support calls in 2025; 697 support grants allocated in 2025 for essential items including specialist clothing, cooling...
Key Metric 3
Largest global investment in EB research to date: multi-million-pound drug repurposing trial provisionally agreed with LifeArc partner at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation...
£34,000 raised in 2025 winter appeal supporting families like Darcie's with specialist items, emotional support and research; 697 support grants delivered in 2025; first Members Connect event in Northern Ireland; EB Priorities Setting Partnership study completed providing global research roadmap
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
22,507 households helped through RBL casework and specialist support services across 66 countries
Key Metric 2
22,600 grants given to those in need, totalling £11.8 million
Key Metric 3
733 beneficiaries represented at tribunals, resulting in £24.5 million in War Pensions awards
1,548 new families living with dementia supported by RBL Admiral Nurses service
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
3,600 blind veterans received support across the UK; 447 new blind veterans started receiving support in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
1,598 referrals to rehabilitation services completed; 313 veterans received assistive technology training
Key Metric 3
997 volunteers donated 26,824 hours of support; befriending service awarded Quality in Befriending Excellence — one of only 11 organisations in the UK to...
1,831 National Creative Wellbeing Project packs issued to help veterans reconnect with creativity and independence
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
349,000+ people completed the Know Your Risk tool to assess their risk of type 2 diabetes in 2024
Key Metric 2
£4 million invested in 17 new research projects; total active grants portfolio worth over £45 million
Key Metric 3
32% of people completing NHS England's Path to Remission programme — which Diabetes UK campaigned for — put their type 2 diabetes into remission
Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge invested over £23 million in 19 projects across 161 experts from 47 institutions in 8 countries since 2022