Celebrating our Founder
By Garth
Caron Thompson receives the BEM Honours Award For Health and Wellbeing
All of the team at Common Unity want to take this opportunity to congratulate our Founder and Company Director who received the British Empire Medal on the 22nd September in recognition of her incredible contributions to community health and wellbeing.
Caron has been rightly recognised for her tireless work over the years supporting the health and wellbeing of our communities through a range of ground breaking programmes across the West Midlands and further
Caron’s grassroots initiatives have fundamentally shaped local community support over the last 25+ years:
- Saving Lives: She has personally designed and delivered a wide portfolio of Suicide Prevention programmes to more than 7,000 people since 2014. This includes the CPD certified SCHEMA: An Approach to Suicide Prevention and the WISE Steps Suicide Prevention Programme.
- Inclusive Advocacy: She has developed targeted, culturally specific mental health resources for South African and Caribbean communities to tackle stigma where it is often deemed hardest to discuss including Bollywood themed films to highlight awareness of Domestic Abuse and targeted Barbershop and Beauty Shop magazines to engage communities where they are at.
- Digital Leadership: She launched The Waiting Room in 2015. A comprehensive online directory providing a digital lifeline to health and wellbeing support across the region. The importance of this resource was particularly highlighted when during lock-down, 1000’s of QR coded key fobs were distributed as part of Public Health’s Emergency Packs for those most vulnerable.
These are just a few of the many achievements that Caron Thompson BEM has been recognised for upon receiving the award from Lord Lieutenant Derrick Anderson CBE. A well deserved honour for a Social Entrepreneur who has made a real difference in our communities.
Congratulations Caron Thompson BEM!