Blue Smile Coronavirus Update: Read our latest advice and updates to our work

‘I’m thrilled the Mental Health Awareness Campaign is working but unless it is backed up by an improvement in frontline services, we’re heading for a national car-crash’.

Alastair Campbell, Blue Smile Conference, June 2017

Events

Blue Smile has a range of events taking place all year round; from fundraising events, clinical training events, awareness days and conferences.

A great way to support Blue Smile is by taking part in our planned events or by organising your own event – raising awareness of our work or fundraising for us.

Fundraising Events

By organising a fundraising event ‘your way’, you can raise funds and awareness of Blue Smile while bringing people together to do what you love best! This might be baking cakes, dancing or playing music – whatever you choose!

To get you started, we’ve created a fundraising pack and other resources to help you on your way.

Miles for Smiles

Walk, cycle or jog to help children get their smiles back!

Perhaps you are inspired by runners in the recent London Marathon, perhaps you want extra motivation to get outdoors in the coming weeks, or perhaps you simply want to help children in your local community and keep healthy at the same time!

Miles for Smiles is a new initiative to enable Cambridgeshire residents to raise money for Blue Smile’s vital children’s therapy work. Now more than ever before, Blue Smile is needed to help children with mental heath and emotional problems. The money you raise will help us support children who are anxious or distressed, through our one to one therapy in Cambridgeshire schools.

You can choose how many miles you will do, whether you will do them alone or with your household, and how you will do them – walking, cycling or running! You could set a target for a specific date, or do your miles over several weeks – you decide.

Simply plan your Miles for Smiles and then set up your JustGiving Page. Make sure you tell your friends and family all about it and spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other websites you use.

Every penny you raise will help children who are struggling with overwhelming emotions and feelings. Thank you very much indeed for taking on your own Miles for Smiles challenge!

You may want to download and print this sign to pin to your hoodie or T-Shirt when you are doing your miles.

Coffee Break Challenges

Looking for ways to fundraise whilst staying at home?

Try these fun Coffee Break Challenges

Coffee Break Challenge – FANCY DRESS

Coffee Break Challenge – PET SHOW

Coffee Break Challenge – POETRY PLEASE

Coffee Break Challenge – MAKES & BAKES

Coffee Break Challenge – TALENT SHOW

Looking for something more energetic? Why not try our Get Fit Garden Challenge? Click here for more details.

Looking for a CHALLENGE?

It might be a triathlon, a skydive or a long-distance walk – there are so many challenge events you or your team can take part in to raise funds for Blue Smile – all you need to do is choose which one! Our Fundraising Pack and Local Giving page can help you with your planning.

We’ve registered with the following companies to help you with some ideas for a BIG CHALLENGE event:

Global Adventure Challenges

From taking on the 3 Peaks Challenge in the UK, cycling from London to Paris or trekking the Great Wall of China, Global Adventure Challenges has something for everyone.

UK Parachuting

Always wanted to skydive? Why not do it for charity? If you can commit to raising over £350 for Blue Smile, we will pay for your skydive!

Or check out these pages for other ideas:

Bungee Jumping

London Marathon (postponed to October)

Wing Walking Challenge

Cambridge 60/35

Blue Smile Hero campaign

Blue Smile Heroes are people who face an obstacle, a challenge, a fear or a new adventure to raise money for the little heroes who use our services. They are people who go the extra mile and exhibit courage and commitment to support Blue Smile. It’s a personal journey as well as a fundraising effort.

Blue Smile Heroes:

Select a genuine personal challenge to raise funds.
Get others involved. We all need supporters who will encourage us and cheer us on!
Raise £500 or more that will help Blue Smile be there for all the children who need us.

Blue Smile Heroes are recognised with a special T-Shirt that can only be obtained once Hero status has been earned and a certificate that confirms that you are indeed a hero!

Here are some links to get you started:

Clinical Training Events

Blue Smile is passionate about supporting the development of clinical trainees and qualified practitioners so they can continuously improve the skills needed to work effectively with children, schools and families. We draw on our own expertise in children and young people’s mental health as well as that of external trainers to provide high quality, regular clinical training workshops throughout the year. Our full and half day ‘Skills in the Room’ workshops combine theoretical and experiential learning, incorporate the use of arts and play and are open to practitioners from various organisations as well as those within Blue Smile.

Our training workshops cover a wide range of topics including:

Using mindfulness with children
Understanding and working with self-harm
Working with ADHD
Sand tray work
Bereavement and loss

Forthcoming events

Due to the Coronavirus lockdown, our training events have been suspended.

Past events

Ditty Dokter – Negotiating Boundaries or Reinforcing Borders?
Clair Lewoski – Gender, Sexuality and Gender Questioning
Clair Lewoski – Mindfulness
Anna Zeffertt – Working with Ill Health
Michelle Miller – Self-harm in Younger Children
Lynne Souter-Anderson – Poking fun and packing punches: using clay with children and adolescents to work through relational conflicts
Biddy Barclay – Tiny and Vast: Worlds in the Sand-tray
Amy O’Leary – Understanding and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse
Dr Joanne Holmes – Working with ADHD
Clair Lewoski – Working with Defences
Raven Kaliana – Puppets do the Talking: Transforming Trauma with Puppetry
Dr Gina Gomez de la Cuesta – Building Bricks for Autism: An introduction to Lego based Therapy
Vince Hesketh – We are not Alone: Working with Family Systems

“Excellent training – good mix of practical with discussions and amazingly generous experience shared with the group.”

“Blue Smile cares about developing its staff and volunteers and provides opportunities for high-quality training.“

“Excellent, highly engaging presenter direct from the field“

Open Days

Current Events:

There are currently no Open Days planned

Past Events:

Volunteer Open Morning- Wednesday 22nd January 2020

Blue Smile conferences

Blue Smile has held two expert conferences in the past four years, both hugely successful. Well over 100 attendees came each time from schools and statutory bodies, alongside therapists and supporters of Blue Smile. An active participation scheme allowed the audience to submit questions on their phones as these came up and to vote on their views on questions from the speakers. We were able to show the information immediately in pie charts, so it was truly engaging and intimate.

Key to the success of these events was the expertise of our speakers, and many commented on how much they valued having up to the minute knowledge and data about mental health in high interest areas such as Special Educational Needs, Attachment in the Classroom, the Impact of Social Media and Self-Harm.

At our first conference, “How To Respond To The Mental Health Crisis in Schools” Alistair Campbell shared his own moving story about his mental health and how concerned he was that unless funding followed the fine words from Government on raising awareness of mental health issues, then we were heading for trouble. We had great talks from our Patron, Proffesor Simon Baron-Cohen, on autism and from Dr Carol Holliday from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education on the evidence base for counselling in schools. Dr Dickon Bevington from the Anna Freud Centre gave us an amazing overview of self-harm and why it’s increasing. Angela Leach, then Headteacher at Shirley Community Primary School, explained why being a Blue Smile Partner School had such a huge impact on pupils.

At our 2019 conference, The Resilient School, a Whole School Approach, our brilliant speaker Heather Geddes spoke about increasing attachment in classrooms, which had the many schools and therapists scribbling notes in excitement. We were really honoured because this was probably Heather’s last big speaking engagement before semi-retiring. She was truly inspiring as an educational psychologist working with young people in trouble for so many years.

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England (OCCE) speaker, Martin Lennon, was fascinating. He spoke on the impact of social media, another hot topic. The OCCE research showed that while social media could increase symptoms of mental ill-health, it had much that was positive too. He made the point that it was a very convenient drum to beat on the subject of mental health in young people and a distraction from its lack of funding. Martin’s final talk on how children with SEN/SEMH felt about their lack of support and understanding, leading to so many being home-educated against their wishes, was really sobering. Young people talking about schools knowing their trigger points for escalating behaviour issues, and yet school rules meaning that these were pressed anyway, was particularly troubling. This goes so much to the heart of what Blue Smile does, with over 40% of the children we see having Special Educational Needs.

Finally, it was great to hear about the Witchford Schools partnership with Blue Smile and the difference made by an innovative package of training and workshops in schools there. There was a real buzz about how such a package of help could support schools with the recommendations under the recent Green Paper on mental health.

We had many schools in the region showing huge dedication to the emotional wellbeing of their students and staff, with their passionate interest in the conference. We are now following up the many requests for more information and help. It says much for the state of school funding that there were many more dedicated schools that wanted to come to the conference but couldn’t afford the cover needed to take up a place.

“Thank you to all involved today. You inspired and educated me. About to type up some notes for colleagues. I feel incredibly passionate about mental health and well-being.” Conference attendee