Funding awarded to four voluntary organisations to support mental health initiatives
20 December 2024
Northamptonshire Sport, Home-Start Northampton, Free 2 Talk, and Community Health-Works have been given this monetary support which will enable them to deliver community-based projects which will aim to improve the mental wellbeing of local residents.
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is committed to promoting good mental health and wellbeing, for people who live, work and study in the area and is working in collaboration with NHS, the VCSE sector, and other partners to deliver services which benefit the local community.
Northamptonshire Sport are a local charity, who support physical activity, health and wellbeing. Using a partnership approach, they deliver sport events, wellbeing projects, activity programmes and support local groups. Their project ‘Team mates’ will work with men living with mental ill-health, at risk of suicide, socially isolated, from lower social economic groups, recovering from drug and alcohol abuse, providing an early intervention programme to support mental health in men.
Jackie Browne, Strategic Director at Northamptonshire Sport shares “We are excited to have received this funding to deliver our new ‘Team-Mates’ programme. ‘Team-Mates’ is a new four-way collaboration between Northamptonshire Sport and the three professional clubs: Northampton Town FC Community Trust, Northampton Saints RFC Community /Foundation and Northants Steelback. Our aim is to utilise the unique appeal and engagement of the pro-clubs locally to target men as an early intervention to support their mental health through weekly walking sport and monthly mental health chat & education sessions.”
Home-Start Northampton is a community network of trained volunteers and expert support helping families with young children through challenging times. Last year, they supported 43,692 families, in communities across the UK. Their project ‘Dads’ community mental health prevention: training and support’ will provide specialist, holistic support through face to face groups, 1:1 support , and virtual support from staff and trained volunteers ensure the challenges Fathers face are tackled early on.
Free 2 Talk’s vision is for children, young people and families who have experienced disadvantage to achieve their aspirations in communities they feel part of, and is committed to tackling inequality. Their project ‘true knowledge – music and broadcasting’ will see them increase music education and quality experiences with young people aged 18-24 years at Inspiration FM studios, in Northampton Town Centre. As well develop an online skill sharing support network for our local artists in West Northants.
Community Health-Works tackles physical and mental wellbeing in the community, in particular to address health inequalities. They are led by qualified nutritionists, who have experience of working with and in the community. ‘Breaking the cycle: tackling emotional eating for better mental health’ will work with adults already accessing mental health services who identify as experiencing emotional eating which is affecting their mental health.
The key areas of focus for these programmes are mental health support for adults with long-term physical health problems, and promotion of mental wellbeing and resilience for those at risk of stress, anxiety, and depression, alongside collaborative working to tackle mental health inequalities within our local area.
Lorraine Hirst, Founder and Director of Community Health-Works added “Community Health-Works are delighted to be working with Mind and their service users to explore and tackle the often unaddressed matter of emotional eating, which can be a significant barrier to good mental health and cause additional distress for many of those with other on-going physical and mental health issues. This is an exciting new partnership with WNC and Mind and we can't wait to get started.”
The four programmes will now be mobilised and run till March 2026. In this time, learning will be key for further developing the future of this programme. Public Health will be hosting a workshop in Spring 2025 with VCSE organisations to discuss community mental health, a shared vision, and opportunities for alignment.