The project
The council has set up a grant in partnership with the Lincolnshire Community Foundation. It is aimed at securing sustainable health and wellbeing interventions across the district. The approach both improves health and wellbeing outcomes and prevents greater areas of need and demand on public sector services developing or escalating in the future.
The benefits
24 third sector groups across the district have benefitted from this innovation. Examples of some of the district wide sustainable interventions and activities include:
A community impact project facilitated by a local church supporting mental health and wellbeing across all age groups. Current activities include a community grocery, providing affordable food that would otherwise end up in landfill.
A Caring Trust providing a free face-to-face befriending service to the elderly in their own homes. It is a response to the high demand for social contact amongst older people, with the aim to meet the needs of lonely older individuals who are largely unable to get out and about and are socially isolated. Volunteers determine how their time is spent, including shared activities and occasional trips, generally sharing time together and building long term friendships.
After a village lost a member of its community through suicide, with another resident having attempted to take their own life, a local church set up a support group for the lonely or isolated. It opened a café. The team of volunteers has grown and it now operates a food bank and memberships to a “Community Larder”. It funds two-weekly bus fares for residents to access this resource. The café plans to grow to provide more outreach to people within the village and surrounding small villages.
Voluntary Centre Services (VCS) are local area offices located directly within districts of Lincoln City, North Kesteven and West Lindsey. The vision is a strong, pro-active community and voluntary sector, improving the lives of communities, enabling the development of stable, thriving communities with the capability to manage lasting improvements to the quality of life. They support voluntary organisations to be resilient, increasing collaboration between groups and support people engage in volunteering.
The Rhubarb Theatre, established in 2004, is a touring theatre company with aim of delivering creative and original arts experiences for all. Using a visual style of delivery, removing language barriers reaching audiences who do not speak English, have additional needs, taking the arts to the community, working in isolated and deprived areas to combat loneliness and encourage inter-generational work.
The Wellness Network is a Community Interest Company set up in August 2022 as a charity with aims to educate, motivate, and inspire people by improving their mental, physical, and emotional health. The Mind and Body programme is a weekly group helping individuals create life goals. Clients complete a workbook to use in the future and online meetings are held as a follow up. The Different Way programme is a full day course of coaching with activities to promote calm, refocus and gentle exercise getting out in nature followed by a choice of follow-on sessions looking deeper into activities which helped them most. Both programmes show people how to gain control, recognise their feelings and have a deeper understanding of what brings them happiness and joy.
