Residents of Haverhill South are to benefit from £25,000 to improve their health, wellbeing and quality of life.
The money comes from the community chest fund, which has been awarded as part of a larger grant from the People’s Health Trust using money raised by Health Intend through the Health Lottery. The Haverhill South People’s Forum is made up of resident volunteers who assessed a variety of funding applications and have successfully allocated funding across ten local organisations.
One of the successful applicants is Soup-A-Lunch, a lunch and social group for people over 60 years of age, hosted at the Leiston Community Centre. Joan Key, the project’s coordinator, said:
“The funding is vital to us. It means, with the colder months now upon us, that we can not only provide hot meals for local residents, but also a safe, social place for people to get together and have a chat.”
“Wednesday for Women”, is a group which meets at Leiston every week, providing emotional support, counselling and information. The funding they have received will buy some new equipment and toys for their crèche service. Emily Delicate, one of the group’s organisers, said:
“Our crèche is a vital part of our service, as mums of pre-school age children can still come along, knowing that their little ones have a safe place to play. They can then have some time out, chat to other mums and enjoy some of the talks we put on, for example from the local fire service who visited in September.”
A second round of funding will open in the April 2017, when other local organisations can apply. David Smith, Haverhill South People’s Forum Chairman, said:
“We are pleased to assist these worthy projects which benefit our local community and we are actively looking for new projects to support, as we will be launching the second round funding soon.
“The Forum aims to develop a sustainable and supportive community. The priorities for funding were decided after consultation with the residents of Haverhill South who decided the funding should focused on community engagement, health and wellbeing and children and young people.”
The ten projects benefitting from the first round of Community Chest funding are: Citizens Advice Bureau, Castle Partnership Academy Trust, Catch 22, One Haverhill, Reach, Realise Futures, Riverside Care & Support, Soup-a-Lunch, Sue Ryder, Suffolk Mind and Wednesday for Women.
For more information on Haverhill South People’s Forum visit www.haverhillsouthpeoplesforum.co.uk, find them on Facebook or email [email protected]