by Dawn M. Sanders
Greetings Everyone,
Happy pre-spring, pre-equinox and welcome to this, our first issue of the year. We’re a week late, due to incorporating our new CIC status to an upgraded website and as you can see, we are now Barriers to Bridges CIC and have dropped the word Magazine out of our title, to keep it bite-sized rather than a mouthful. 😊 I’ve also been relentlessly ill, so have struggled with writing processes, but we’re here, the best we’ve been so far and only set to fly! Not only are we now a Community Interest Company, we’re truly international and I couldn’t be more proud. In the 3 calendar years we’ve been on the net, we’ve gone from local/national coverage to expanding to a worldwide reach, as we are now commissioning – fishing for pitches on social media means the right pitch could come from anywhere. Consequently, our first commission is from as far afield as Pakistan and we have our second-time contributor from the U.S. What has been interesting when reviewing pitches, is the level of writers wanting to pitch on various aspects of mental health struggles. With modern life as it is today, rogue governments holding whole societies to ransom in favour of power, greed, and big oil – people worldwide are struggling with mental health challenges. So, in the next months, expect to see articles addressing mental health in its many strands.
This month our content comprises: our commissioned writer, Aimen Arshad, on the practice of meditation to aid anxiety; Kathy Anne Myers contributes again with 2 very different experiences of bipolar disorder; our Lucia Messent wrote a timely piece on the treatment of the right-wing media of those on Universal Credit; I did a follow-up article to last June’s article on gender transitioning; I also wrote a long-form whistleblower on a situation affecting my family’s human rights and our new European correspondent, Sandra Abdelbaki has done her first piece on life for Arabs in the Czech Republic – not something we here of in today’s ever-inwardly looking Britain. So, we’ve got a packed issue to keep the inquisitive wheels turning in your brain this weekend.
The reality of being a not-for-profit is we will forever be pining for funding to sustain the business, commission writers from disadvantaged backgrounds and grow as a platform. So, please consider making a one-off donation – however big or small, every pound helps. Hopefully, by next month’s newsletter, it will be possible to make monthly donations at a low or modest rate.
Exciting times here at Barriers to Bridges, as we go from strength to strength, as the founding editor I couldn’t be more grateful and proud of my young dedicated little team. Also, huge appreciation to you, our subscribers – your support, feedback and encouragement make it all worthwhile. Please remember to share widely on your platforms and contacts.
We’ll be back with next month’s in-between newsletter – see you then,
Dawn Sanders (Founding Editor) Lucia Messent (Subeditor) Sandra Abdelbaki (European Correspondent) Celeste Pearce (Illustrator) and as ever, huge appreciation to our Maggie of RedDogVA for making the website wonderful.
© 2023