Our History and Achievements
Talking Matters founder Ms José Martin originally established the much feted Dalston Youth Project (1981-4) trained and qualified as a Youth & Community Worker (1984-6) and eventually returned to orthodox Judaism (1990).
Whilst employed by Hackney Council, Social Services as the Orthodox Jewish Community Liaison Officer (1992-9), she identified a gap in services - there were no mental health services for orthodox Jews as the stigma was so great. So as part of her work for the local authority she established Chizuk (1995), still the only service in England for Orthodox Jewish mentally ill patients. From the start of her employment part of the work was to develop and provide seminars on working with the Orthodox Jewish Community. The Cultural Awareness Training Seminars (CATS) commenced in 1992 and are still in operation today (See chronology below)
1999
• The idea of PREVENTION grew naturally out of Chizuk.
• “Why wait till someone has an illness, why not help them to off load some of their issues before they become problems?” So the idea of Talking Matters was born!
• Ms Martin established the organisation with the hindsight of 18 years experience youth & community work in Hackney (as well as Westminster, Hammersmith and Tower Hamlets)
• 7 years experience of organising Cultural Awareness Training Seminars (CATS)
• The experience of having previously established 2 other charities
2000
• An outline to a Diploma in Counselling in the OJC was written by the Director
• Started Family Seminars which ran for 3 years
• Became a Company Limited by Guarantee
• Established one page newsletter
2001
• Became a Registered Charity
• The booklet “Directory of Counselling in the Orthodox Jewish Communities of England” was published and circulated to over 800 individuals, organisations & service providers in UK
• Our course outline was approved by the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA)
• Validated by the Counselling & Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body (CPCAB)
• Supported by Hackney Community College and
• Franchised to Massoret College (MST)
• 19 students started the course, one travelled every week from Manchester as it was the only course at this level for the community in the whole of the UK
• 9 students were form North West London and 6 were from Hackney
2002
• Established small lending library for our students
• Negotiating and establishing counselling placements for all the students around London in culturally appropriate settings
• 1st research project on Pre Marriage Education with Royal Holloway University of London
2003
• The popular Directory of Counselling was reprinted
• TMA moved into its first “proper” offices (from the director’s home to its North London premises, in Stamford Hill Library) We shall be for ever indebted to Jo Baty who was at the time the manager of the SRB Programme as they vacated the premises, so TMA was offered the 2 rooms.
• Opened offices in Salford and Gateshead & employed 3 regional co-ordinators
• Established our Family Support Seminars in all 3 centres
2004
• Lady Amelie Jacobovits agreed to be our patron.
• We ran 2 ground breaking training courses, Child Protection for rabbis in the community with Professor Stephen Frosh as the trainer and
• Addiction Awareness Seminars for Rabbis and their female counterparts, the majority of the counsellors are women, with Rabbi Jonathan Dove as the trainer (the only orthodox Jewish Addiction Therapist in UK)
• 16 students completed our counselling diploma course, 15 students passed
• CHOICES Pilot Programme was started by employing our own students, re-investing back in to the community the skills, expertise & qualifications they had developed through our course
• Our newsletter “Expressions” by this time 12 pages, won “Highly Commended” in Jewish national community newsletter competition
2005
• Choices programme going from strength to strength with Chassidic men asking for counselling, openly, for the first time ever.
• We were awarded a grant form NIMHE and UCLAN (National Institute Mental Health England and University of Central Lancashire) to participate in their Community Engagement Programme whereby community members from various BME’s around the country would be able to train to do research into mental health issues in their communities. This was all part of DRE, Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health, a national programme of changing the over representation of BME’s in the mental health system.
• Started on our book “Understanding Addictions” (from sugar and shopping to substances) in English, Yiddish and modern Hebrew. This is the first of its kind in the world and it sold well in USA
• We were given a sizeable donation to convert a very grey, storage room into our 1st complementary therapy room, to be named after the father of our donors, Abraham (Albert) Shaw, to be known as the Shaw Therapy room
• The counselling room was named after the founder’s parents, the “Vera & Harry Martin Therapy room”
• Gateshead office, closed down
2006
• Established our research programme on “ Emotional and Behavioural Experiences of Orthodox Jews of North London, a needs assessment of Mental Health services”
• CHOICES booklet was published
• CHOICES 2 Programme started in Salford, funded by Salford PCT
• Small grant to refurbish old Surestart offices
• Start of Pilot Drama Sessions once a week for older girls and young women
• Established partnership with Hands Inc providing complementary therapies in Stamford Hill
2007
• CHOICES Programme becomes an NHS mainstream project
• For one year we employed Dr Nadia Loewke-Kinn, our consultant psychiatrist, who on a weekly basis carried out psychiatric assessments and worked with the more complex cases. She was not only a psychiatrist, but also a medical homeopath, so we knew that all clients would be given choice, if it were possible, as to the type of therapy or treatment available.
• Continued with Drama, different tutor.
• Finished refurbishment of old Surestart offices from grey and brown to navy and purple, a transformation with thanks to HCVS, The Learning Space blossoms
• Established a one day a week complementary health service with Hands inc, offering affordable therapies in the heart of Stamford Hill
• Understanding Addictions was published, with foreword by the doyen of psychotherapy in the orthodox Jewish world, Rabbi Dr Abraham Twersky, with support from the Metropolitan Police, it was launched in Manchester
• CEP Research, completed. Launched and published in London
• Established Children’s counselling Tots 2 Teens (5-15 year olds)
• DVD about the work of TMA started by Elin Moe
• We launched our piece de resistance “Up on the Hill” a photographic snapshot of life in the Stamford Hill Charedi community 2007, as a resource for non Jews in the Cultural Awareness Training Seminars, explaining in simple terms the ways of the community.
2008
• Closed the Manchester (Salford ) branch after 6 years.
• Established our 1st outreach project “Portals” with 2 outreach workers, whose job it is to bring stress prevention workshops to the community. Over the year they worked with nearly 10 organisations and 85 new service users.
• Won a bid for a small grant from the London Councils to spread our wings and provide our services to not only Hackney, but also Haringey, Brent and Barnet. The project to be called Talking Hands (Talking Matters and Hands Inc)
• On World Mental Health Day (traditionally October 10th every year) we launched our 1st, short DVD by Ms Elin Moe with Mr Dean Henderson as the guest speaker. He was newly in post as the Director of Mental Health for City & Hackney (under the new East London Foundation Trust)
• Established our 1st ladies “Level 2 Listening Skills Course” over 15 weeks, 11 started, 10 completed and 9 handed in their work. All 9 passed with flying colours, 100% pass rate.
