Our story
The Hearts and Minds Partnership is a collective of three perinatal mental health charities: Acacia - The Midlands, Bluebell Care - South West and Smile Group - North West.
We’re not a membership organisation, but a thriving community of grassroots perinatal mental health services committed to sharing learning and creating a coherent voice for our sector.
Our programme of work focuses around:
- The creation of an England-wide interactive map of quality VCS perinatal mental health services, to enable signposting to parents and healthcare professionals
- The development of trusted spaces to share learning, make new connections and talk about the challenges we collectively face
- The creation and delivery of dedicated training to support the practical realities of growing, developing and sustaining a VCS perinatal service.
The three charities came together, supported by The National Lottery Community Fund, with shared values and a vision to help connect, support and celebrate Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) perinatal mental health charities across England.
The team
Nat Nuttall
Nat Nuttall is the Lead Partnership Coordinator. She is a mum of two and co-founder of perinatal mental health charity, Smile Group, based in the North West.
Nat has lived experience of postnatal depression as well as growing a grassroots charity from scratch. She sees a great opportunity in the partnership’s work to connect, support and celebrate all the wonderful voluntary sector organisations in the perinatal mental health community.
Contact us via email at: hello@heartsandmindspartnership.org
Abi Yardimci
Abi Yardimci is the South West Co-ordinator. She is mum to two half-Turkish boys and is also an author, blogger and trained mindfulness teacher.
Abi has lived experience of postnatal depression and anxiety as well as miscarriage. She also worked for 5 years as a peer support ‘Buddy’ for Bluebell Care, supporting mums one-to-one and in groups. Abi is a passionate advocate for mental health discussions and action in every arena, but particularly in families and motherhood.
Contact us via email at: hello@heartsandmindspartnership.org
Sarah Hislam
Sarah Hislam is the Midlands Co-ordinator. She’s a mum of two and has lived experience of anxiety, depression and birth trauma.
With a background in the voluntary sector, she set up and managed Parents in Mind perinatal mental health peer support project in Coventry and Warwickshire. Sarah is also a trainee counsellor, has a keen interest in all aspects of mental health, and is a huge advocate of peer support.
Contact us via email at: hello@heartsandmindspartnership.org