Age UK Leicester Shire & Rutland awarded a Getting Help in Neighbourhood Grant

Getting Help in Neighbourhoods, the innovative scheme that will eventually see around £3M being spent in local areas by charitable, voluntary and community groups to increase the support available for mental health and wellbeing, has this week announced the recipients of it first round of grants and we’re excited to announce we are one of the lucky recipients.

Age UK Leicester Shire & Rutland is a local charity that provides a wide range of services and support across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.  We work in local communities to enable older people  and informal carers to  live happier, active, fulfilled and socially-engaged lives.

The Getting Help in neighbourhood Grant will enable us to continue providing a volunteer befriending service in Rutland. The service provides regular low-level support to older people who are at risk of becoming chronically lonely and who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in terms of increased levels of isolation, bereavement and loss of confidence.

This NHS funded grant scheme, has been organised in a partnership between the CCG, LPT, Leicestershire County Council, Leicester City Council and Rutland County Council and has been administered by Leicestershire & Rutland Community Foundation (LRCF), an organisation that strengthens local communities by giving thoughtful grants to local charities and voluntary groups, for all kinds of local needs. 

Katy Green, CEO of the Foundation said: “We were so pleased to be asked to administer this fund. We give grants to local voluntary groups to help them support our communities – it’s all we do – so we see the challenges.  Mental health support, especially after the pandemic, is a huge challenge and this fund is taking on that challenge.”

“Many of us don’t realise how much local voluntary groups achieve day by day with local people who are struggling for whatever reason. The voluntary sector is the real “leveller up” making sure as many people as possible are given opportunities to thrive.”

Rob Melling from Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, one of the partners behind GHIN, added: “We were delighted with the quality and diversity of the applications. It’s important that we are investing in the voluntary and community sector to strengthen and widen the local offer of support for mental health. We want to acknowledge the groups that were either unsuccessful this time or not ready to apply and we would encourage them to consider applying in future rounds of this grant scheme.”