In the beginning……..there was decorating!
In the beginning…..
Five years ago on the 13th October, Phoenix Health and Wellbeing was granted charitable status and formally registered as a charity by the Charity Commission of England and Wales. The purpose of the Charity was to offer support in the form of counselling and complementary therapies to people with chronic health issues and low incomes and also to offer training in this field.
The organisation was set up by Gill Trevor and five founding Trustees; Lindsay Texel was Chair and Dave Barton was Secretary. They were joined by Jon Woolmore, David Tuck and Nigel Tapp. The therapy team joined shortly afterwards and consisted of a brilliant counsellor and massage therapist, Julia Webster and Viv Farci.
Oh those green doors have to go!
The organisation was established legally but the premises that had been found in Oxford Chambers were still somewhat down at heal. There followed two months of hard work building and decorating to create our current home!
Our official opening
Phoenix Health and Wellbeing was officially opened by Tom Riordan, Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, at a ceremony on December 5th2013.
FeelGood:DoGood
Phoenix was set up as a charity with a social enterprise business model. People could come along and have counselling or a massage treatment and the proceeds of that visit would go into the charity pot. So the first few months were spent spreading the word about Phoenix and its ambitions. By the end of March 2014 we had treated 39 clients who had chronic health issues and were referred to us and 47 full fee paying members of the public.
These numbers increased steadily over the years and last year (April 2017 to March 2018) we supported 371 clients who were referred to us and 339 members of the public. Here’s a link to a chart for those of you who like that kind of thing!
How we’ve grown……
As time has gone on we have developed more income streams to help to fund our charitable work. We now rent our therapy rooms to other healthcare professionals and our meeting room to other organisations. Also, we go in to workplaces and give workplace massage treatments and talks about stress management. We sell gift vouchers and hold fund raising events like our Charity Ball: we have sky dived, walked, swam, ran, zip wired and ridden to raise funds for Phoenix and had a lot of fun in the process!
The future
Coming up to our fifth anniversary and our big move to new premises is making our thoughts turn to the future. We need to generate more income to deliver more treatment sessions. We also have bold plans for a future Phoenix which has community hubs to offer support in the most deprived areas of our City.
Thank You
What we really want to say now to every person who has played a part in the last five years is Thank You. Whatever your role; if you have advised us, fund raised, been for a massage, bought a gift voucher, hired a room, told others about us, volunteered or worked with us…..
Phoenix Health & Wellbeing is a registered charity (Charity no. 1154273). When you come to us for a treatment you will be helping us to support people who have chronic health issue and low income or their unpaid carer. We use the proceeds of your treatment to subsidise those who would not otherwise be able to access our therapies. Roughly £3 to every £10 spent with us will go to help others.
Phoenix Health and Wellbeing offers excellent massage therapies in Leeds City Centre with therapists who are fully qualified, insured and members of relevant professional bodies. Click here to find out more
Opening times:
Monday to Thursday: 10:00 to 20:00
Friday and Saturday: 11:00 to 16:00
Sunday closed.
