ABOUT LEAF
LEAF is a Christian Charity established to help with the ‘well-being’ of people in our community. ‘LEAF’ stands for ‘Locally Encourage All to Flourish’, and our focus is on supporting people to flourish individually and as members of their communities.
The charity operates across a number of areas with the result that every person is supported across the whole of their lives, and not characterised by any particular need.
LEAF is broken down into a number of ‘well-being’ strands (physical, emotional, spiritual, young adults, youth and children) all of which come together to bring a coordinated approach and focus.
DIRECTORY OF SERVICES FOR COMMUNITY SUPPORT
If you feel you would benefit from any of the services listed below then please get in touch and we can share how you can access any of these services
Children and Families
LEAF runs activities for families and children throughout the year, as well as supporting on-going programmes such as Open the Book in our local primary schools. Children from Key Stage 2 enjoyed finding out about one of our major Christian festivals when they came to ‘Experience Easter’ at the end of the Spring term. There will be an Easter Trail around all the churches on Easter Saturday. This Summer we are planning two free activity days on the Recreation Ground, in July and August, similar to one held last year. As last year, other events include an alternative to Halloween, (a Light party at St Michael's church in October) and an Advent party. We hope to add more events to the calendar in future: further details will be posted on this website and publicised locally.
CAP (Christians against Poverty)
CAP offers free debt advice and support to those who need it. We are linked to the CAP centre in Malvern and offer support in Ledbury through trained befrienders. We also run Money courses offering financial skills to those who need financial help. We also have a trained debt advisor operating one day a week in Ledbury. If you feel that you would benefit from support in this area then please use this link to access more information
https://www.herefordshiremethodists.org.uk/ledbury-debt-centre
Youth
LEAF works alongside LYAS (Ledbury Youth Activities Support) and will be securing a venue as a social meeting space for teenagers. We will then support the running of a youth drop in several times a week.
Counselling
We currently offer free/low cost counselling and therapeutic support to those needing longer-term talking therapy. With fully qualified (nationally recognised) practitioners we currently have capacity for up to 12 clients a week. We are looking to increase that over time as the need becomes evident.
Addiction
For those struggling in the area of addiction there is a small facilitated peer recovery group that meets weekly as part of an extended Alpha (spiritual support) group.
Pastoral Care/Bereavement support group
We have a team of around twelve people who help support those in our community with various emotional and practical issues.
Over the coming months we are looking to establish and start the following activities:-
Kintsugi Hope
‘Kintsugi’ is a Japanese technique for repairing pottery with seams of gold, thereby making the repaired article more precious than it was originally. Kintsugi Hope groups, in using the practical technique, offer support to those trying to ‘repair’ their lives from an emotional and mental health perspective. We are in the process of training two facilitators to begin to run these courses in the Autumn 2021.
Chaplaincy
We are looking to establish a chaplaincy service supporting the healthcare service in Ledbury. This service will provide support for those struggling to make sense of life, perhaps because of a personal crisis, and will be available to people of all faiths or none.
Eco-therapy
Recognising that the ‘outdoors’ can be a positive environment for people struggling emotionally or with mental health issues we are looking to establish a number of outdoor activities where people can engage with physical activities whilst being part of a facilitated peer support group.