18 March marks World Sleep Day - the annual celebration of healthy sleeping patterns and awareness-raising of sleep problems. Quality sleep is essential to good mental health and living a happy life. This year’s theme is ‘Quality Sleep, Sound Mind, Happy World’.

Artists Laura and Mei Yuk from The Turnpike gallery have been working with a group of students every Thursday as part of the Making of Us project at Bridge College. Since January, the group has been meeting every week and have gained huge mutual respect and learned a lot from each other. 

"Making of Us is a professional development programme supporting 16 mid-career socially engaged artists living and working in Greater Manchester. Bringing together the cross-sector expertise of partners in the arts, social care and education sectors, Making of Us will initiate mutual learning opportunities and new ways of collaborating with a focus on artists engaging young people."

Have you heard about the fantastic work being done to promote LGBTQ+ rights at Inscape House School? Proud Together is a staff and student-run group that empowers students to learn about the issues affecting LGBTQ+ people, share their own experiences, and create a more inclusive school and community. Here, Senior Teacher Stéphane Maitrejean shares an update on their activities.

Inclusion Facilitators, Ada and Jayran from the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain have been leading drama sessions in Bridge College for the last 4 months. The National Youth Theatre said, “Inclusive Practice is essential to the work that we do, and we want to make sure that NYT is always a welcoming and accessible place for disabled and neurodiverse young people.”

As we begin the new year, we at the Together Trust are looking forward to many special events and occasions. One of these occasions is celebrating 30 years of service for a very special support worker at our charity. 

To mark Ian Riley’s milestone, we interviewed him to find out what made him leave the engineering industry for the social care sector, even if it meant cycling 26 miles every day, how he was chosen as ‘No 17th Happiest Person in Britain” thanks to his work at the charity and what inspires him to keep working with the Trust after 30 years of service.

Work experience at Bridge College is a great way for students to gain invaluable skills that they can use in the future. There are lots of ways students benefit from work experience. 

Students, Tom and Charles, currently have a placement working at The Bread and Butter Thing. They have been there for 12 weeks since August 2021 and have made such an impression already.

We are incredibly thankful and proud that our Christmas appeal #TogetherForChristmas 2021 raised over £22,000 from cash donations and gifts These have gone to the children, adults and families we support to make their holidays a little brighter. Thank you to everyone who donated, supported, shared and showed us kindness this season.

"Christmas can be an extremely difficult time for our young people, some of whom do not get to see family over the holiday period. Receiving additional presents from people outside of the home provides a sense of belonging to the community and instils the sense of Christmas spirit."

Students from Inscape House School are selling their artwork to raise money for a school trip. The Post 16 students created the art as part of their Enterprise Art Sessions, where they drew inspiration from visiting the Van Gogh exhibition at Media City. The project was led by Lisa Bowyer, an Associate Teacher at the school.

Kyran is 13 years old and has been a student at Ashcroft School since May last year. As well as thriving in his new educational environment, Kyran has also quickly become a strong advocate for the Together Trust outside of school. Last week, Kyran and his mother Kylie spoke at the Together Trust AGM about the difference Ashcroft has made to their lives. In this blog, Kyran shares how Ashcroft has helped him.