Current Projects
Life Change Changes Lives and their Projects give people a reason to get out of bed in the morning providing creative therapy, peer mentoring and counselling. It is a place to express yourself and the opportunity to have a purpose, boost self-esteem and become part of a family. Unlike other mental health services, LCCL is a place that allows you to let go and transform your life and be part of a family.
How it Works
We start with rejuvenating furniture donated to the project which was otherwise destined for landfill with the philosophy that whilst you are upscaling the furniture and renewing it and giving it a new life you give the piece purpose and you also rebuild your own self in the process. Essentially taking nothing and making something out of it can effect the same change in you. Every piece has a story to tell, a story about people’s lives affected by mental ill health and addiction but on the road to recovery.
Previous Projects
No Lost Cause
Here’s a tighter, more streamlined version that keeps the logo’s poetic inspiration front and centre, while still fitting neatly into your WordPress block format:
No Lost Cause is a new Life Change Changes Lives project, funded by the Department of Justice. Its logo is inspired by Stevie Smith’s poem ‘Not Waving but Drowning’, reflecting how behaviours often seen as negative can actually be signs of distress — and how the right support can change lives.
Building on the success of the Pop Up Art Project, No Lost Cause will expand training and community activities in Downpatrick over the next two years.
The project offers an intergenerational programme focused on activities, counselling, advocacy and practical support to help disadvantaged and disengaged people realise their potential.
Early initiatives include Food Hygiene Training and cooking sessions, encouraging families to return to healthy, affordable home‑cooked meals. Research highlighted by Lord Ramsbotham and Professor Michael Crawford supports the link between nutrition, behaviour and mental wellbeing.
Young offender’s diet
One young offender had been sentenced by the British courts on 13 occasions for stealing trucks in the early hours of the morning.
Dr Bernard Gesch [Senior Research Scientist at the University Lab of Physiology, Oxford, and Founder of the research charity Natural Justice, which he set up to investigate causes of criminal antisocial behaviour] recorded the boy’s daily diet as follows:
Breakfast: nothing (asleep)
Mid morning: nothing (asleep)
Lunchtime: 4 or 5 cups of coffee with milk and 2½ heaped teaspoons of sugar
Mid afternoon: 3 or 4 cups of coffee with milk and 2½ heaped sugars
Tea: chips, egg, ketchup, 2 slices of white bread, 5 cups of tea or coffee with milk and sugar
Evening: 5 cups of tea or coffee with milk and sugar, 20 cigarettes, £2 worth of sweets, cakes and if money available 3 or 4 pints of beer.
In the forthcoming months participants will be taught work ethics, job confidence, social confidence and commitment so that participants become both life and work ready. The No Lost Cause project will encourage behavioural modification, participation, teamwork and provide support through Counselling sessions, harm reduction programmes and referral pathways for persons suffering from addiction.LCCL want to reduce social isolation encountered by offenders and victims of crime, persons isolated through stigma associated with mental ill health and those who experience problems during and after addiction recovery.
No Lost Cause is funded by The Asset Recovery Community Scheme and aims to help reduce re-offending and fear of crime among those who are marginalised or whom have offended due to mental ill health and/or addiction through the provision of integration, creative activity, self-care and training. We have provided NVQ training Level 1 in Hospitality Services, Food Hygiene and Safety Training Level 2, Child Protection Training and Makaton Training to date.
Our social ideology is based on focused community care where our members remain in their own communities during therapy.