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TWO local business owners have teamed up to offer women in the local community a ‘space to be heard’.

Deborah Pickering, founder of Havant-based Beam Wellbeing, and Nancy Fellows, founder of Creatful – a community interest company in Waterlooville, have teamed up to help provide local women with a ‘space to feel heard’.

On Saturday the business owners are hosting a not-for-profit retreat day, from 10am to 4pm at Warren Park, Havant, which they hope will help improve mental health and wellbeing in the community.

Having won a funding bid from Havant Community Lottery, Deborah and Nancy are now gearing up for their second retreat day following a ‘hugely successful’ event in September.

Deborah Pickering and Nancy Fellows September event, an accessible wellbeing retreat in Havant.

The ladies, who met through community work and who are ‘passionate’ about supporting women and improving communities, were able to provide five free spaces to the Wellbeing Retreat Day which were offered to local charities and organisations that work with women. The rest were offered at whatever attendees could afford.

The day, designed to provide women with a ‘space to be heard’, will begin with a welcome circle and consist of mandala dot painting, calligraphy, mindfulness and breathing exercises as well as a buffet lunch and refreshments.

SEE ALSO: Portsmouth Hospitals Charity is urging people to take part in the Great South Run

All proceeds from the event will go back into community projects such as this one.

Deborah, from Waterlooville, said: ‘After the last three years, we’ve got mental health services which are vastly stretched, but sometimes what a lot of women say is they’re signposted to medical help but actually what they need is space to be heard.

‘We’ve got to move away from this model of mental health as an individual thing, we are social beings and our energies impact others, the more people we can leave floating out a little bit lighter the better,’ she added.

Deborah and Nancy are also keen to use local facilities, so that any money spent will go back into the community.

‘I’ve always felt that the financial barrier for women accessing wellness tools in their community is a problem, so I wanted to create a day where women who may not ordinarily have access to a retreat day, get to have that experience,’ added Nancy, who lives in Purbrook.

‘Creativity is a hugely underutilised wellbeing tool, my passion and my drive is about giving access to it.’

Portsmouth business owners to host wellbeing retreat day in Havant to boost women's mental health

SEE ALSO: Portsmouth Hospitals Charity is urging people to take part in the Great South Run