Help keep Mental Health Swims afloat

After a 50% drop in donations over the past year, mental health peer support community Mental Health Swims has launched a crowdfunding campaign to keep its vital projects going

Mental health peer support community Mental Health Swims (MHS) has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help keep its vital projects going.

The community group, which has seen a 50% drop in donations over the past year, says that while they have lots of amazing work in the pipeline, without immediate funds they will not be able to see these projects through.

Their crowdfunding campaign, which launched Wednesday 6 September, hopes to raise £30,000 to continue to support their hosts and participants across the UK. The crowdfunder ends on 11 October.

Since launching in 2020, the community group has trained over 350 volunteers and hosted 1,393 mental health swim sessions nationwide.

“We want to make it easier for people living with mental health challenges and mental illness to join in and we are proud to have more than 150 swim locations UK-wide and beyond,” says the MHS team. “Participants can swim, dip, paddle or toe-dip and can do what they are most comfortable with – we are firmly focused on dips, not distance and community, not competition.”

On their crowdfunding page, MHS explain how the funds will help continue their projects:

“So far we have managed financially with donations from our community, small grants and partnerships. However, as for everyone, we have found this year especially challenging. We currently run on £3000 a month. This pays for our small team, insurance, all our systems and maintaining our website.

“We have plans for more permanent funding but these won’t come to fruition until later in 2024. We urgently need funding to survive until then. Please help!”

To donate to the crowdfunder, visit: crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-mental-health-swims

Read our feature about Mental Health Swims.