Purpose-led. Not profit-led.
Sidekick Initiative is a nonprofit mental health and lived-experience support movement based in Portsmouth. Built from real life and real struggle, it exists to support people who feel isolated, overwhelmed, unheard or stuck.
Sidekick Initiative is not a charity brand designed in a boardroom. It started because the founder, Rob Prior, went through prison, years of mental health struggle, PTSD and CPTSD, and the long work of rebuilding, and he knew from the inside that the support he had needed was not the support most services were giving.
Now Sidekick Initiative supports people every day, through mentoring, workshops, walks, talks and challenges. We work in schools, prisons, gyms, cafés, workplaces and community rooms. Wherever the setting, the approach is the same: honest, human, structured, and rooted in lived experience.
We support people affected by addiction and recovery, alongside people navigating mental health, isolation and life after crisis. Sidekick Initiative is not a clinical or emergency service, and it is not available 24/7. When the moment is urgent, our urgent help page points to services that are.
We are nonprofit, community-first and independent. Money raised goes back into the work. Sidekick Initiative is a non-profit community organisation currently registering as a Community Interest Company (CIC), not a registered charity, and does not claim Gift Aid.
Rooted in Portsmouth. Built with the people who show up.
The Community Kettle in Cosham is one of the places Sidekick Initiative calls home, a warm room, a proper conversation, and a door that stays open.
The people behind the work.
Rob Prior
Founder
Founder of Sidekick Initiative. A lived-experience mental health advocate and trained recovery mentor, teacher and speaker based in Portsmouth. Blunt when it needs to be blunt, human all the way through.
Danny Tolhurst
Sidekick Initiative Team
A former Royal Navy Mine Clearance Diver and offshore saturation diver who supports Rob in planning challenges, reaching people who are struggling and listening without judgement.