Men and Women Unite for the Future

A mother’s community group, and a men’s mental health group have come together to offer an extended support network across Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Stoke-on-Trent Mother’s Support Network – who have been providing various resources to mums since the summer of 2020 – will now be providing extra support to women as part of a collaboration with Men Unite.

Men Unite aim to bring men together to discuss mental health problems and to support each other on a daily basis. The group, which started on Facebook in May 2019, now has 14,000 members worldwide and recently opened a support hub at Hanley Town FC.

In the last 12 months, founder of Men Unite, Craig Spillane was receiving messages and calls from women who were asking for support and now, Women Unite has been launched in collaboration with Stoke-on-Trent Mother’s Support Network.

“I was getting calls all of the time from women asking for help,” said Craig. “We decided at Men Unite it would be good to ask another support group to help us to provide extra support. We are so pleased Laura from Stoke-on-Trent Mother’s Support Network, said they would collaborate with us. They have already been providing help to mothers and can now work with us to provide more support.”

Stoke-on-Trent Mother’s Support Network was founded by Laura Carter, who started to help mothers by pointing them in the right direction to access the services they needed. The network also helps to provide baby goods.

Just like Men Unite, the mother’s support network has continued to grow.

Laura said: “When I started the network I wanted to provide a safe space for mums to reach out and ask for help and also to support them where we could. We have connected with so many mums and we will be continuing to provide our service.”

Laura adds: “Working with Men Unite is brilliant. We had several conversations with Men Unite and we are so pleased to be working with them to now provide support via Women Unite. We wanted that safe space for women to come to share their experiences and struggles and support each other – and now we can start creating that.

“Men Unite have been doing great work and now, working together, we can support more men and women. We will also be looking at various training that can help us to develop and we will help to point those who need specific support in the right direction to the right services.

“We already have good connections with various other support services through Stoke-on-Trent Mother’s Support Network, and we will continue to use them.”

Find Men Unite and Women Unite on Facebook.

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