This year sees Rosie Jones taking on a new role as the founder of her own charity, The Rosie Jones Foundation. She reached the Final of the Funny Women Awards in 2016.
In conversation with anti-ableism campaigner Lucy Webster she spoke about looking for charities and causes she could lend her voice to, especially ones for people with CP, but “there was a hole that needed to be filled, particularly when it came to teenagers and adults, looking at their mental health. So I made a very big, scary decision to start my own foundation.”
The foundation’s main aim is to relieve the mental health crisis among young people with cerebral palsy (CP). It will endeavour to fill the gap in services for young people with CP by focusing on two main goals: connecting people with CP to appropriate, tailored mental healthcare, and creating spaces for connection and peer support from other people diagnosed with CP.
Jones spoke of her own experiences with therapy and the sudden drop-off of support young people face, as almost all services are stopped as you reach 18. Even when people with CP do reach out for help, finding appropriate and tailored provisions is difficult and sometimes impossible to access. Jones states, “They’re often seen by a therapist who is nondisabled,” she explains, “so they don’t have that shared perspective, so it’s hard to explain or to talk.”
The foundation is already working with therapy providers and other charities to facilitate change and help people with CP pay for the tailored care they need. The charity also wants to support more people with CP to train and qualify as counsellors, boosting the supply to meet the demand. So for now, the focus is on securing funds so that they can set about making change and supporting those who need it most.
You can find more information on how to support The Rosie Jones Foundation here
