We are excited to announce Umega Lettings’ charity partnership with SAMH!

Umega has supported campaigns and done a significant amount of fundraising over the years. Umega was the only letting agency to support Shelter’s “Make Renting Right” campaign and was a corporate sponsor for Social Bite’s Sleep in the Park. As we develop our company culture and working environment to being one of the best small business in the world, we’ve been thinking about how Umega can better support mental health; we have recognised that we have an opportunity to fundraise for and share experience with one of the leading mental health charities by forming a fundraising and knowledge sharing partnership. Over the last 6 months, we’ve been working with SAMH on how we can make this happen and we could not be more excited to announce it now!

Who are SAMH?

The Scottish Association for Mental Health – known as SAMH – is Scotland’s largest mental health charity. SAMH has been around since 1923 and currently operates over 60 services in communities across Scotland providing mental health and social care support in areas of homelessness, addictions and employment.

Everyone has mental health and SAMH works towards a vision of a society where people can live their lives fully regardless of present or past circumstances relating to their mental health status.

Why we chose SAMH?

SAMH aligns with our mission and our continual effort of becoming one of the best small businesses to work for in the world and we recognise the importance of the workplace being a safe, open and happy environment for everyone in our team.

It’s important that we create spaces for our team to speak about mental health and break the stigmas associated with it, as well as give people the tools they need to enjoy a happy life at work and in every aspect of their life. We are conscious that “People who are happy at work tend to enjoy life more and have better health, stronger relationships and a greater sense of purpose. They also have a huge positive impact on the organisations they work for…” and this is what we seek to achieve at Umega!

Being in paid employment is more than just a way of earning a living; it provides identity, contact and friendship with other people; a way of putting structure into your life; and an opportunity to meet goals and to contribute as part of a team. Our goal is to work with SAMH to provide information and support to the members of our team, leading to increased awareness and understanding of mental health and encouraging open conversations.

Turning to our Customers

As our business grows we touch on the lives of more and more landlords and tenants. This gives us the opportunity to raise awareness of mental health, encouraging open conversations and signposting access to services, support and treatment. This aligns well with our mission of smashing the negative stereotypes of letting agents.

What we’ve learned

There are 5 things everyone can do to achieve better well being and positive mental health. These include but are not exclusive to: staying connected, being active, enjoying the present moment, learning and finding time to give. SAMH has put this great graph together that summarizes these insights and gives a little more context on how to approach a holistic balanced life.

Umega will be running events throughout the year to fundraise for and support SAMH and will be inviting members of the wider Umega family to get involved.

If you’re interested in finding more about the little things that make Umega a great place to work click here !