Mothers Mind Staffordshire
A Stoke-on-Trent charity that provides maternal mental health peer-led help has supported more than 330 mothers since it was founded in 2021.
Mothers Mind Staffordshire was started by Sally Wilson, aged 44. Sally was herself recovering from postnatal depression and vowed to set up an organisation to provide the help, support and love that was so desperately needed.
Her aim was to create a charity that would open conversations, break down stigmas and discrimination, empower mums and educate people to support and encourage those affected by maternal mental health. As Sally says “we wrap mums with love”.
With a background in mental health, care and family support, Sally is a perinatal specialist leading a team of seven volunteers who between them possess a wide range of maternal mental health illness experience and skills.
The team’s effectiveness comes not only from its passion but also their lived experience of what the mums they encounter are going through.
Mothers Mind Staffordshire has been nominated in the Community Group of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards by some of the mums it has worked with.
One mum said: “Mothers Mind were the first service I was brave enough to reach out to in the darkest days. All of the staff are warm, compassionate, nurturing mums with lived experience.”
Another mum said: “There are no real words to describe how supportive, empathetic and empowering the ladies are.”
Sally Wilson said: “We provide a range of support and services and collaborate with a variety of people and organisations. We see this as an eco-system focused on bringing goodness.
“We want to get the message out that it is normal and okay to feel this way and everything we do is built upon building friendships, breaking the stigma attached to maternal mental health and eventually to mums having an ownership of their recovery.
“We provide a space where invested time and love strengthens and builds the bond and attachment between mother and infant.
“We want to build the charity and continue making a difference.
“Mothers Mind Staffordshire is the only peer-led perinatal mental health charity in the city – this isn’t just a passion, it’s a mission and something that I love doing”.
Beat The Cold
A Stoke-on-Trent-based charity which aims to reduce fuel poverty and cold related ill health is helping to bring down the year-on-year fuel poverty figures within the city.
Beat The Cold has more than two decades of experience in energy advice and support within Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. The charity is a client-led service committed to helping those who live in, or are at risk of, fuel poverty, or whose health could be detrimentally affected by a cold home.
The charity is pioneering in how it uses health data and is striving not only to make a difference within the county but to be the blueprint for best practice in England. Key to achieving their aims is building relationships, partnerships and collaborating with a variety of stakeholders to best serve those who are referred.
These partnerships include the likes of University Hospital of North Midlands Trust, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust and Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust.
The charity is commissioned by local authorities and works in partnership with health boards across the county to provide a single-point-of-contact health and housing referral service.
It was also an expert witness in the development of National Institute for Health Care and Excellence (NICE) Guideline, NG6.
A team of 12 helps Beat The Cold go the extra mile to support every service user, regardless of the complexity of their situation, in an area that has the highest level of fuel poverty in the country.
The charity offers a range of services including home energy assessments, advice on managing energy bills, help with switching suppliers, accessing funding available for heating repairs and replacements, support for accessing grants and funding and providing information on energy saving measures.
Chief Executive Officer, Fiona Miller, said: “Beat the Cold has a long history of delivering significant impact and we are always looking at introducing new and innovative ways of alleviating fuel poverty to reduce health inequalities.
By supporting vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, we are contributing to improved health and social outcomes for the area.
“There are wider underlying factors in our city that are being addressed and what we are doing at Beat The Cold is working.
“What we are all about is the people of our city and county. It’s a privilege to work with and for so many amazing people and we are thrilled to get the amazing feedback we do for the work that we do.”
Beat The Cold has been nominated in the Community Group of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards 2025.
Alsager Animals in Need
Three generations of one family are helping to ensure the continuing welfare of animals in the Alsager area.
Alsager Animals in Need has been in existence for 38 years, and the mother and daughter combination of 88-year-old coordinator Hilary Baxter and her 52-year-old daughter and assistant coordinator Lisa Williams have put in decades of service between them, offering shelter and veterinary care for stray and abandoned cats and dogs in Alsager and the surrounding areas.
They have now been joined by Lisa’s 17-year-old son, Daniel, and are supported by a number of helpers, volunteers and fosterers to ensure this ‘small but caring’ charity continues to thrive and provide a much needed service for local animals.
Alsager Animals in Need makes every effort to trace owners but, if unsuccessful, aims to rehome through their network of local private boarding kennels and fostering shelters and houses.
All dogs and cats are given veterinary support and love and the charity puts on fundraising events, as well as giving people the opportunity to sponsor animals.
Hilary said: “We obviously need passion and love to do what we do. But we also need money too. That’s why fundraising is so important to us.
“What we do can take over our lives and so we are indebted to everyone that helps us. We get calls at any time of the day or night asking for help, so I think that it really is important that we really love what we are doing.”
After retiring from teaching, Hilary joined Alsager Animals in Need in 1990. As a youngster she had always wanted to be a vet but sees what she does now as ‘the next best thing’.
Alsager Animals in Need has been nominated in the Community Group of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards 2025.
Re-Form Heritage
A Stoke-on-Trent-based charity is transforming at-risk historic buildings for the benefit of the local and wider community.
Re-form Heritage, based at Middleport Pottery, was appointed as the Heritage Development Trust for Stoke-on-Trent in December 2023. This status is funded by the Architectural Heritage Fund, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England to kick-start the regeneration of key heritage sites in Stoke-on-Trent.
Their past work helped save Middleport Pottery from closure, transforming it into a visitor attraction and creative centre. This was followed by the regeneration of Victorian workers’ cottages at Harper Street across the road.
Plans are now advancing to transform Hanley’s Bethesda Methodist Chapel into an educational and events centre by the end of 2026.
Re-form Heritage has around 25 full-time staff and up to 50 volunteers. It is one of 12 social enterprises and charities across the UK empowered to take over and transform at-risk high street buildings by being granted Heritage Development Status. This status will see Re-form Heritage work alongside stakeholders throughout the city to help preserve Stoke-on-Trent’s heritage.
Dr Alasdair Brooks, Re-form Heritage’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We want to link justifiable local pride in this city to a global interest and global significance in its heritage and buildings.
“Our flagship heritage building, Middleport Pottery, has become our blueprint for future restoration projects and we are proud in how it attracts people of all ages from all over the world.
“We are now starting to expand our activity across the city and we will continue to explore opportunities, be positive and get things done. It’s so important to regenerate and create spaces for local communities, places that inspire, educate and connect people with their past and with an eye on the future.”
Re-form Heritage has been nominated in the Community Group of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards 2025.
Alice Charity
A North Staffordshire charity that supports vulnerable and disadvantaged families across Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-Under-Lyme had a positive impact on the lives of 9,247 children and provided almost 11,000 meals for children in 2024.
Since 2011 The Alice Charity has aimed to break the poverty cycle, improve lives and change communities. They see that each family’s needs and circumstances are different and so tailor the help that they give to each family accordingly.
The charity develops sustainable solutions, supports families and makes a difference with collaboration and a multi-agency approach.
The Alice Charity employs 12 staff and has the support of a number of volunteers. From running food banks to delivering educational resources and offering advocacy and mentoring, the charity empowers individuals to build brighter futures.
Last year the charity handed out 5,700 Christmas presents to 1,404 children, facilitated 4,450 hours of volunteering, distributed 146 essential items for babies and toddlers including prams, pushchairs and highchairs, and dispended cots, moses baskets and beds for babies and children who otherwise wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep safely.
Alice Charity CEO Heather Sheldon said: “We offer fantastic support to families and children. Moving forward, we will slightly reposition ourselves and increase our focus a little more on helping children thrive, especially the birth to five years age group.
“We think it’s really important that these children have as much fun and enjoyment as possible too, and we will look to bring youngsters and families together whenever we can. The Alice Charity will continue with determination on our quest to ensure that every child, young person and family have a safe and happy life, and the foundations they need to flourish.
“We also are looking to develop our corporate relationships further to enable us to all pull together for the common good and make people as happy and healthy as possible. Together we change lives.”
The Alice Charity has been nominated in the Community Group of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards 2025.
We Love Stoke
Whilst a couple were falling in love with each other they were falling for Stoke-on-Trent too – and this has resulted not only in a recent marriage but a hugely positive social media success story too.
Steven and Kim Levitt, who are both from the south of the country, met in The Potteries and then tied the knot in April 2025. Whilst dating, the 37 and 34-year-olds visited a number of attractions, events and eateries within the ST postcode and soon became smitten with the six towns.
The result was a huge social media sensation, We Love Stoke, founded in 2022, with many resident Stokies and city diaspora alike enjoying the Hanley-based couple’s hugely positive videos, photos and stories.
The couple champion everything Stoke-on-Trent. Their Instagram page @welovestoke has more than 11,300 followers with a website coming soon.
We Love Stoke isn’t their job and it wasn’t set up to make them money. Steven is a marketing manager and Kim is a community activator for a local charity.
Kim said: “We are massively passionate about this city, which has become our city. We met here and we love the place.
“All we wanted to do is to share that and create positivity. For us, the city has everything, including so many beautiful green spaces and parks.
“We have seen in the three years that we’ve been doing We Love Stoke that there are many, many likeminded people around. In fact, it’s the people that make this city so great – I’m not used to strangers saying hello to me in the morning.
“We didn’t expect it to take off like it has, but we get so many messages from people saying thank you for shining a light on this city – but it’s me and Steven who should be thanking the people of Stoke. It’s great to know that they can see and appreciate our love of the area.”
We Love Stoke has been nominated in the Community Group of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards 2025.
Asha North Staffordshire
His own heartbreaking experiences as an asylum seeker led Godefroid Seminega to start a community group in Stoke-on-Trent which has grown into a charity that works with more than 400 asylum seekers and refugees a week.
Godefroid, now aged 59, had to leave his medical career when he fled from Rwanda in 2002. He eventually settled in Stoke-on-Trent where he founded Asha North Staffordshire, a group-based support service for asylum seekers and refugees.
He is now the CEO for the Hanley Business Park based organisation that has two full-time and seven part-time staff.
Since 2005 the charity has helped more than 900 people each year
from almost 50 different countries who were seeking refuge from persecution. It provides advice, clothing, food and education.
From legal advice to mental wellbeing, Asha North Staffordshire’s services provide the holistic support and guidance people need to leave crisis behind and begin to live safely.
They also host events and activities including a free lunch club, a mothers group, football get-togethers, a trip to Llandudno for 300 people and a Galaxy Club for 16 to 24-year-olds living in social care.
Godefroid said: “I found myself destitute on the streets of London, begging for money to get a bus pass to go and see my immigration associate.
“I experienced myself how difficult the process could be and so when I came to Stoke-on-Trent I really wanted to set up an organisation that could help others in the same situation.
“I’m really proud of what we do. We not only want to help asylum seekers and refugees but to change perceptions about them too.
“We are open Monday to Saturday every week and as well as our employed staff, we have more than 80 volunteers. Many of these are refugees and asylum seekers themselves and they do some fantastic work in the community such as litter picking and planting flowers.
“We are now looking to expand what we do into East Cheshire and South Staffordshire”
Asha North Staffordshire has been nominated in the Community Group of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards 2025.