A Grantham men's support has been buzzing with energy since it launched a few weeks ago.

The Place2Bee was formed by the South Lincolnshire Blind Society, which has been working with retired veteran Jason Desmond, who heads up the group. It is a registered charity and it's CEO is Susan Swinburn.

The group operates as a drop-in centre on Monday and Thursday evenings from 6pm to 10pm at the BHive Community Hub, in Elmer Street South, Grantham.

Spokesperson Melissa Darcey said: "We have already seen 7 people become regular attendees accessing help and support with a total of 10 1-2-1 sessions with Jason which has meant we have been able to save 3 lives so far.

"Our drop-in sessions have included a wide range of free activities such as pruning trees, weeding and getting prepared for major groundwork including disabled access to our pond at the B.H.I.V.E Community Garden.

"The activities have had a positive impact by enabling gentlemen to open up about their stresses and anxieties, whilst learning new things, such as basic sign language, painting dolls house furniture and photography with the help of volunteers.

"During our sessions so far, we have taken 2 trips out to the charity's allotment and taken part in woodworking activities with Simon Kieffer from Outwood CIC and we would like to thank him for his offer of help and support."

Moving forward, Place2Bee is in the process of organising a network of safe spaces for people to go to. Once these are finalised, when a person arrives at one of our locations they can "#AskForLuther" (who is our in-house therapy dog) which removes any stigma surrounding "asking for help".

Melissa continued: "We have had some overwhelming feedback on how we have already been able to help people within our community, by providing a non-judgemental safe space to chat and engage in activities with other people, increasing social skills and decreasing the likelihood of these people self-harming.

"The local crisis team have also given us positive feedback regarding a gentleman who we supported prior to him being able to access their services, they were concerned that had he not had a Place2Bee he may not have made it to them at all, we were able to provide support to the gentleman which then enabled him to receive further help and we will continue to offer our support to him throughout his recovery."

Such good works has led Place2Bee to receive the support of Grantham councillor Lee Steptoe, who is a qualified Counsellor. He will working with the group voluntarily to provide 1-2-1 counselling to its service users.

Melissa said: "We would like to thank Lee for his support and further details will be made available regarding this service once it has been finalised.

She added: "Furthermore we would like to raise a Call to Action - we are looking for local musicians who could offer their time to help our service users to learn new instruments.

"We strongly believe that music is a great healer and it offers an alternative way to express ourselves and so we feel this will give our current and future users another way to unwind, destress and just bee…."

The Place2Bee can be contacted on 07706736722 with voicemail and text service activated should the call not be answered straight away.