Lewisham Be Well showcase
On Monday 23rd March, we held a South London Listens Be Well Showcase in Lewisham—an opportunity to follow through on commitments made by SLaM and system partners to actively support Be Well and to visit local sites delivering this work.
The session brought together around 30 community leaders, Be Well practitioners, church groups, Ade Odunlade, Interim CEO of SLaM, Ranjeet Kaile, Executive Director of Communications, Stakeholder Engagement and Public Affairs, and SLaM Governor, Cllr Carol Webley-Brown, as well as wider South London Listens partners.
The showcase highlighted the work of four Be Well sites—St William of York Church, Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network, Youth in Mind, and Elevation Empowerment / New Testament Church of God—each providing inclusive, accessible spaces for community members experiencing social isolation and mental health challenges. Leaders shared how their activities are “bringing people out of their homes to come together and connect”, demonstrating the power of hyper‑local community support in preventing poor mental health.
Discussion focused on how SLaM can continue strengthening its partnership with the Be Well network. Key priorities identified included: raising awareness of SLaM’s services; improving signposting through training rather than leaflets alone; strengthening links with social prescribing; embedding clinical partnerships already underway—such as NHS Talking Therapies delivering depression and anxiety training within Be Well sites; improving digital visibility of all sites; aligning Be Well communications across SEL/SLaM/HUB of Hope; and continuing joint work on wider determinants of health such as housing through the Health and Housing Coalition.
As part of the event, SLaM leaders reflected on the Trust’s ongoing strategy review and invited community input ahead of the 31 March deadline, acknowledging the value of lived‑experience insight in shaping priorities. The showcase also reaffirmed SLaM’s commitment—first made at the South London Listens Health Assembly in October 2025—to maintain active engagement with Be Well sites and support the prevention‑focused community infrastructure they provide.
At the session a powerful testimony from a member of one of the Be Well organisations was shared:
‘I discovered my local Be Well group, a discovery which has enriched my life beyond recognition. Long term illness, physical or psychological, can be a very lonely path to walk. It can be a tiring unending battle, sometimes difficult for others to understand or identify with, sometimes too hard for friends and family to witness.
In my local Be Well hub, I have been fortunate enough to find a group of people who have the most extra ordinary capacity to walk beside me (and others who like me seek the group.); to care, to adapt to and accommodate what I find hard, to reassure and to offer support in so many different ways. They welcome with friendship, healing, give me the strength to try new things and the opportunity to once again reach out and take part in life. I can belong, I can have connections, I have the chance to ‘be well’ I owe each of them the deepest, most heartfelt gratitude and thanks, because through them, I now have hope, new possibilities, a gentler life, and a place of rest, ‘a safe home’.’