Groups and charities working to improve mental health and ease loneliness across B&NES have less than a week left to apply for up to £2,000 from the county’s Community Wellness Fund.
The funding is made available through the Quartet Community Foundation and Virgin Care.
The Community Wellness Fund enables local communities to tackle some of the causes of social isolation, mental ill health, and to promote and improve people’s health and wellbeing.
Groups have until Wednesday 6th November to apply to the fund.
The fund is open to all community and charitable groups in Bath & North East Somerset where a substantial proportion of members and beneficiaries are people who feel they have a mental health or wellbeing need.
It is managed by Quartet Community Foundation and delivered by Virgin Care as part of its contract with Bath and North East Somerset Council and local NHS to bring health and care services together and improve outcomes through empowering local people to stay well and proactively look after their health.
Last year Bath Carnival, Carers Centre BANES and Keynsham Walking Football Club were among 12 community groups and charities to benefit from grants of up to £2,000 each to improve mental ill health and loneliness across the area.
The Woodworks Project and Sporting Family Change also benefited from grants last year.
Sami Cheung, from Woodworks Project in Bath whose £1,600 grants allowed them to run an upholstery workshop with seven people twice a week for a year, said: “The grant from Quartet Community Foundation enabled us to re-start our weekly upholstery sessions for people in our community, introducing them to the world of upholstery and introducing them to new people.
“The majority of people who attend our upholstery workshops have never done upholstery before, and everyone has made lots of progress in learning this traditional craft to give unwanted furniture a new and vibrant lease of life.
“For many of the people who attend our workshops, the upholstery workshop is a firm part of their weekly routine and quite often the highlight of their week, so thank you for your funding support!”
Jilly Edwards, from Sporting Family Change who received £1,856 to run a gym fitness project for families in Radstock, added: “This was a fantastic grant, supporting inactive parents to get fit, improving both their physical and mental health.
“The sessions proved very popular and all parents made significant progress, successfully completing either the Bath Half Marathon or the Family Fun Run.
“This was a fantastic achievement, so thanks you so much for your funding support.”
The closing date for applications is 6th November 2019, and charities and organisations can apply online here: https://quartetcf.org.uk/grant-programmes/banes-supporting-communities-2/.
