Commander's Coin
Awarded to Jules by the British Army's 11 Signal and West Midlands Brigade, in recognition of outstanding contribution to community wellbeing, partnership working and support for military personnel and their families.
Our story
Built on real experience, real people and real outcomes.
Mental Wealth Community CIC didn't start as a business idea. It grew out of real life: years of listening to people, sitting in community rooms, running projects, and navigating our own personal challenges.
How we began
Shaped by professional and lived experience.
Our work is shaped not just by professional experience, but by lived experience: family suicide, caring responsibilities, and periods of mental ill health that taught us what support really feels like when life becomes overwhelming.
Before this CIC existed, we led The Big Happiness Experiment CIC, a decade of hands-on community work funded by national and local partners. We worked with people facing all sorts of challenges: poor mental health, PTSD, neurodivergence, isolation, unemployment, financial pressure, confidence loss, and the feeling that life had become too heavy to carry alone. We recognised those feelings because we've lived versions of them ourselves.
We didn't just deliver sessions. We sat with people. We listened. We learned. And we saw what made the biggest difference, not quick fixes, but confidence, connection, and someone who understands what it's like when life knocks you sideways.
What we learned
Activities help. Capacity is what lasts.
We learned that activities and workshops help, but they don't create lasting change on their own. Real change happens when people feel confident, capable and connected. When they understand themselves better. When they feel able to take a step forward, even a small one.
We also learned that communities need support too. Volunteers burn out. Leaders get tired. Local groups struggle with capacity. Good intentions aren't enough if people don't have the skills or support to keep going.
After years of delivery, and years of lived experience, we asked ourselves something simple: how do we help communities stay strong long after a project ends?
The answer wasn't “more sessions” or “more funding”. It was capacity: human capacity and community capacity. Helping individuals grow in confidence and skills. Helping communities build relationships, leadership and resilience. Helping local people support each other.
Our mission
Help people grow. Help communities grow. Help change last.
Mental Wealth Community CIC is the natural evolution of everything we've learned, both professionally and personally. It's built on real experience, real people, real outcomes and real data, not theory.
Today, our mission is simple: help people grow, help communities grow, and help change last.
Built together
Different experience. One shared mission.
Mental Wealth Community CIC is led by two people with very different backgrounds and one shared belief.
Jules has spent more than twenty five years helping individuals, groups and organisations understand what people really need in order to grow. She is a two time TEDx speaker and the author of seven books, including titles commissioned to support British Army and Royal Air Force families, and her work has been featured by the BBC, BBC Radio 5 Live, Psychologies and Top Sante. Alongside that, she has spent a decade delivering community work on the ground, in village halls, schools, community centres and people's front rooms across the West Midlands.
Lee brings more than thirty years of experience in organisations, governance and strategic development. Alongside a career in regulated financial services, he has built partnerships, secured close to a million pounds of grant funding and helped community organisations turn good intentions into projects that are properly planned, properly funded and built to last.
Together we share a simple belief. Understanding people is not separate from building stronger communities. It is the foundation of it.
Two time TEDx speakerAuthor of seven booksFeatured by the BBC25+ years of practiceA decade of community delivery
Communities are not short of potential. They are short of the support that makes it last.
Recognition
Recognised for the work, not just the words.
Our work has always been about what happens on the ground, in communities, long after a project finishes. Along the way it has been recognised by the people and institutions we have worked alongside.
Queen's Baton Bearer
Jules was selected as an official Queen's Baton Bearer for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, in recognition of her contribution to communities across the West Midlands.
Let's build something that lasts.
Whether you want to strengthen yourself, your team or your community, we'd love to hear your story and share ours.