TLC: Talk, Listen, Change is a relationships charity that has supported people in the North of England for over 40 years. Their aim is to ensure everyone within their community benefits from good emotional wellbeing, and they believe the key to this is maintaining safe, healthy and happy relationships.
Challenge
TLC: Talk, Listen, Change delivers counselling, family mediation, behaviour change programs, and domestic abuse support. Counselling has always been provided through a sliding-scale payment model, ensuring no one is turned away and that free counselling is offered to those on low incomes whenever possible. However, rising living costs have increased the number of people needing subsidised counselling, while grants and funding have become harder to secure, making the model unsustainable.
Solution
The decision was made to establish Now You’re Talking, a paid counselling service for individuals and businesses, offering counselling and psychotherapy for adults, couples, and children. This new subsidiary is a profit-for-purpose organisation, meaning that profits generated are gifted back to TLC: Talk, Listen, Change, to help support more people through the charity’s services, which include domestic abuse, mental health, and family mediation programs.
Revenue
Income is generated through providing a range of counselling and therapies, delivered online or in person and by a therapist of their choice. They hope to attract clients able to pay for therapy and motivated by social purpose, as well as employers looking to purchase support for employees while contributing towards their own ambitions for corporate and social responsibility.
The profit creates an unrestricted income stream for TLC, helping to retain the financial sustainability of the charity and enabling them to extend support across the country.
Impact
The profits from these paid services will enable TLC: Talk, Listen, Change to extend their services and to reach more people in pursuit of safe, healthy, happy relationships. That means more services for people affected by domestic abuse, more therapeutic well-being services, more family mediation services.
Through this model, the charity not only ensures its own sustainability but also amplifies its positive impact on society, extending its reach and support to communities nationwide.
“2024 is an incredibly exciting time for all of us here at TLC. Despite the numerous challenges that the charity sector is facing as a whole, with less funding and more people needing help, we’re looking to widen our service reach and set ourselves on a path to sustained growth over the rest of the year and beyond.”
Michelle Hill, CEO for TLC, Talk, Listen, Change
““We are delighted and proud to provide the first credit union loan under the Enterprising Communities Fund, working with GMCVO and other funders. Using the community wealth created by our members to enable local social enterprises to improve the lives of others is something that fits well with the not-for-profit, co-operative and ethical principles of Credit Unions. We hope that our Credit Union and others in Greater Manchester can provide more of these loans to help the local VCFSE sector continue to thrive.”
Christine Moore, CEO at Manchester Credit Union