Open Minds was founded in 1999 to provide activities for individuals with a learning disability who live in Nottingham. Our aim as a charity is to provide a social network for our members so they can make friends and have a safe space to talk about their worries or concerns. More importantly however, we like to have fun! We pride ourselves on putting on a diverse programme of activities for our members. Open Minds is a small organisation, we rely on a close-knit team of volunteers, staff and trustees to help with the day to day running of things. Our programme of activities includes our Saturday meetings, mates and munchies, talk chat and chill, group trips, workshops, 1-2-1’s etc. We do all our activities out in the community and take our members to many locations in central Nottingham.

Our charity continues to thrive even as we have been faced with new challenges., like the cost of living crisis. The purpose of Open Minds to provide activities and socialisation becomes even more important, with Zoom being a tool to allow the continuance of our activities. We developed our services to have an emphasis on mental health, to combat the isolation our members were going through. The introduction of our What’s app group ‘What’s up?’ continues to act as a glue that bonds our members together when theybare at home. It allows them to keep in touch and share photos of their outings. Our what’s app group is monitored by volunteers.