We are shining a light on lesser known charities in the island. Our next one is Praxis Care (charity number 0826).

Who are you / What do you do?

We are a social care charity.

We offer care and support to people with learning disabilities, mental ill health, dementia and autism in the UK, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

All of our services are co-produced and bespoke developed and delivered with each person we support.

Why / When did you form?

Praxis Care formed in the 1980s as a befriending organisation, supporting people with mental ill health to forge relationships with volunteers who would check in on them regularly and spend time with them.

We formalised in 1984 to provide mental health support and do research about mental health services in Northern Ireland.

We expanded to the Isle of Man, offering mental health services in the island.

Over the years we have continually developed our support to include learning disability services: day care services and supported living.

Our Glenroyd home in Ramsey recently celebrated 20 years of successful and highly valued operations. Our fantastic manager, Wendy Green, has been working at the service since 2003.

What has been your proudest moment?

There is no one proudest moment.

With thousands of people supported over the years, there are thousands and thousands of individual stories of triumph and progress – we are proud of every one.

The positive and very meaningful relationships that build over time between individual staff and people they support are the heart and soul of what we do.

What is your biggest goal for the future?

We want to be known as leaders in co-production. This means the people we support, their staff teams and those close to them are integral to service design and delivery.

It means that each service is continually shaped around them by them.

We are only helping to achieve great outcomes for people if they are the outcomes they are interested in!

We include people we support as co-researchers in our research department on panels and in staff training.

Increasing our co-production at an organisational level by hiring more people with lived experience of social care and consulting them on the direction of the organisation are some of our big goals moving into the future.

Can people get involved?

We need more staff! We have an entire department just dedicated to training and to helping people build a career in care – we are renowned for the quality of this.

People who don’t have experience in social care get comprehensive, paid induction so they can feel confident and empowered when they are in their roles.

Our teams have a range of experience levels and are supportive when new people start, so newcomers shouldn’t feel intimidated.

For people who have a desire to help others and a caring nature, Praxis is a perfect organisation to join for the most rewarding work.

We also have volunteering opportunities.

We’d like to hear from you!

Where can people find you and donate?

People can find more information on praxiscare.org or telephone 01624 619803.