Meet some of the people from Middle Street

Robert Ashford

Robert joined Middle Street as a mental health worker in 2001. Today he is the Centre’s Chief Executive.

“There was an energy, I think, with the staff team. And I just thought, I can really align with this, because the value base here, was very much about user involvement. Support plans were spoken about as ‘in partnership’, rather than a delivered kind of approach. It wasn’t necessarily the worker saying what they felt… It felt very much that there’d be an agreement between a worker and someone who was accessing the service, in terms of what felt like a good fit for them. So there was a really considered approach.”

Kate Foale

Kate Foale is a local councillor for Beeston Central and Rylands and a longtime supporter of Middle Street. She supported the campaign to save the Centre. 

“I was just overwhelmed with the wonderfulness of it, it was just such a brilliant kind of ethos. And people were coming up to me saying, ‘awesome, thank you for coming. And please save the Centre, it is a safe haven, it’s made me better.’ And I could see that there was absolutely no doubt it had to be saved.”

Michael Osborne

Michael Osbourne is a member of Middle Street. As part of the Campaign to save the Centre he helped to set up the Mindset programme which organises the Centre’s weekly activity programme. 

“Mindset was about providing a safe place for people with mental health problems, to have activities, to provide a hub for the community to meet up, to provide therapy and key workers, that was all built into it.”