Support Services

Jigsaw (South East) supports bereaved children, young people and their families and also those affected by a family member having a terminal diagnosis.

The Forces Families Project

The Forces Families project (formerly Joining Forces for Families), an Armed Forces Covenant funded project that has been running since October 2018. It is delivered in partnership by Citizens Advice Hart, Rushmoor Citizens Advice and Portsmouth Citizens Advice. It aims to help serving personnel and their families when they encounter life's stressful events. It is free, confidential and independent and impartial. The Forces Families Project is tri-service and operated in North East Hampshire and Portsmouth and other south coast areas such as Gosport Fareham and Havant. We often attend military events such as health fairs, family fun days and of course Armed Forces day.

These services have gone well above and beyond the provision of large print and audio books and have been recognised nationally, receiving the Libraries Change Lives Award in 2003 and in 2023.

The aim is to provide a needs based service to increase the independence and wellbeing of adults who are blind or vision impaired. The work is led by their Vision Impairment Services Officer (who is blind), supported by library staff and volunteers. Most of the users of this service are over 16 years of age. The local authority does provide support in schools for children so most of the library work has been with adults.

Portsmouth Library and Archives have been providing additional services to people with vision impairment for over fourteen years.

The Lullaby Trust offers confidential support to anyone affected by the sudden and unexpected death of a baby or young child. This support is here whenever you need it, whether the death was recent or many years ago. It is available for families, friends, carers and professionals. There are different ways we can support you and you can choose from our range of services.

Nearly 1.5m people in the UK have macular disease. It affects people of all ages. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common condition, generally affecting people over the age of 55.

AMD is the biggest cause of sight loss in the UK, affecting more than 600,000 people.

A group of rare inherited conditions called macular dystrophies can affect much younger people. Some of these rare conditions can appear in childhood, although some are not diagnosed until later in life.

MAN v FAT is for men who want to lose weight. We run the award-winning weight loss programmes MAN v FAT Football and MAN v FAT Challenge, providing guidance, resources and community support to thousands of men all over the world every year.

MAN v FAT Football is football with a difference. Your weight loss progress directly impacts your team’s performance, and together with your teammates, you’ll work to score goals both on and off the pitch.

Even if you haven’t played footie since you were a kid, MAN v FAT Football is a fantastic way of improving your health – and 90% of players lose weight.

A friendly social group for people over 50

Every Friday

Provides information on bereavement, where to go for support, and suggestions for helping yourself and others through grief

Coping with redundancy during the pandemic

The coronavirus outbreak is putting huge financial pressures on our workforce and many organisations are facing very difficult decisions related to staffing. Even with support measures in place from the Government, like the Job Retention Scheme, some industries have ceased operations altogether while others cannot retain staff on a long-term basis due to financial issues.

Whether expected or sudden, redundancy can cause huge uncertainty, stress and anxiety, and can make existing mental health problems worse. We’ve put together some ways to look after your mental health during the redundancy process.

We hold monthly coffee mornings on the 2nd Friday of each month 10.30 - 12noon at the Living Well Centre, for people living with MND and their carers, family and friends.

These meetings provide an informal opportunity to meet with other people living with the disease and to share experiences and ideas.