Caron Thompson receives the BEM Honours Award For Health and Wellbeing
All of the team behind The Waiting Room want to take this opportunity to congratulate Caron Thompson,the Founder and driving force behind our online platform. On the 22nd September Caron was awarded the British Empire Medal in recognition of her incredible contributions to community health and wellbeing including the conceptualisation, development and delivery of The Waiting Room across Birmingham and Solihull.
Caron has been rightly recognised for all 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. Caron’s suicide prevention training has been delivered across the region including Coventry and Warwickshire, Dudley, Walsall, Sandwell and Birmingham and Solihull.
- Inclusive Advocacy: Caron has been at the forefront of developing 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: In 2015 with no financial backing, Caron launched The Waiting Room – A comprehensive online directory providing a digital lifeline to health and wellbeing support across Birmingham and Solihull. The importance of this resource was highlighted further 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. TWR continues to go from strength to strength being recognised as the community facing directory that puts health and wellbeing at the fingertips of its visitors.
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.
Enquiries:
Email: info@common-unity.org
Website: https://common-unity.org