Award for Charlie Waller lived experience partner

The charity Holding Space supports parents and carers whose children are struggling with their mental health. It offers a safe space for people to come together, talk, share and be connected along their journey with monthly coffee mornings, telephone support, counselling, family art classes and educational programmes.

Since it was founded in 2019, Holding Space has supported more than 1,000 families across East Sussex.

Mental health charity award

Monthly business news publication Acquisition International is aimed at business leaders in the UK and around the world. It holds several categories of annual awards, including for non-profit organisations, and chose Holding Space as winner of the Best Family Mental Health Charity 2024 award.

The award citation says: “The importance of the charity’s model really shines through. It underpins the fact that addressing parental health concerns is as crucial for a child’s development as recognising their own, as only together can families face up to these challenges and yield positive outcomes.”

The founder and CEO of Holding Space is Hansa Raja, who is also one of the Trust’s Parent and Carer Lived Experience Partners. They play an important role in driving forward our work, ensuring that lived experience and co-production are at the heart of everything we do. In particular, they are working with us on the development of our Families Programme. This champions parent carer peer support within local children and young people’s services to help families of children with mental health difficulties. Several of the parent/carer volunteers at Holding Space have completed the Trust’s PCPS course lecture programme.

Hansa said she was “thrilled” that Holding Space had won the award and made the plea: “Help us to build a future where no parent feels that they need to support their child’s mental health alone.”

Explore our resources for parents and carers