The Lucy Rayner Foundation

The Golf Day

Last Sunday we wished the best of luck to our team of elite Space and Time golfers as they ditched programmatic media for pars, budget optimisation for birdies and digital strategies for double eagles.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be, and rain and gale force winds washed away any hope of triumph in the tournament (for this year anyway!)

Back before COVID-19, we made the decision as a company to sponsor a local golf day organised in aid of a local mental health charity, ‘The Lucy Rayner Foundation’. Established for several years, the event has grown to be one of the biggest social events the foundation hosts, expected to raise an average of £12k per year. Many teams enter year on year to have the chance to snatch the coveted winning title, and 2020 promised to be bigger than ever; 42 teams entered, there were amazing prizes at every hole and a collection of excellent auction items available to bid on.

The Foundation

The Lucy Rayner Foundation was born 7 years ago, when the incredible Rayner family decided to ensure that their beloved daughter and sister Lucy did not take her own life in vain. Lucy was 22. She was a daughter, a sister, an auntie, a niece, a friend. She was popular and the life and soul of every party. She was also depressed and displayed signs and symptoms that were overlooked by medical professionals. Life became too much of a struggle and she decided she just did not want to be here anymore.

In the years since Lucy’s passing, the Rayner family have fought tirelessly to raise awareness of mental health issues in young adults and to prevent other families having to experience the horror they’ve had to endure.

The charity has organised many social and fundraising events, generating thousands of pounds which has been invested in a variety of services, including providing a free counselling service for individuals struggling with their mental health, a bereavement service for families of loved ones that have taken their own life and countless support groups such as the ‘Just Talk’ coffee mornings. Most recently a men’s focused discussion group has been set up, designed to provide a confidential and non-judgmental space where men can talk about issues affecting their mental health.

As a company we actively recognise the importance of mental health and the impact poor mental health can have, not only on the individual – but also the wider effects it can have on friends, family, and colleagues. It’s something we take very seriously as a company and have engrained in the Space & Time culture. We have appointed a mental health officer in every office and take full advantage of resources made available to us to help educate our staff and management.

This resource includes our own internal training platform – Space Academy – which was born two years ago. An integral tool for our staff’s development with hours of courses and content (on everything from how to media plan to how to time manage their day), it features a wealth of advice on coping with stress and promotion positive mental health, as we are aware that this can affect anyone in the business.

We do our best to ensure our staff know they are supported in any time of need, promoting schemes such as the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), as well internal tools to submit feedback or concerns anonymously without fear of judgement or potential anxiety of escalating an issue to peer or senior stakeholder.

We actively support and champion the hard work The Lucy Rayner Foundation carries out to provide an invaluable service for the local community and feel proud to be associated with the charity and its work.

Who knows? Perhaps it will be third time lucky in April when we once again prepare to support our golfers as they head off, clubs in hand to represent Space & Time and raise funds for a fantastic cause. Fingers crossed things soon return to normal…and there’s no rain!

Should you wish to learn more about the charity and the services they offer, please visit https://thelucyraynerfoundation.com/ or email [email protected]