Four Bristol-based projects awarded loneliness funding

Four projects based in Bristol have been awarded funding through the government’s £11.5 million Building Connections loneliness fund. 

The fund was created earlier last year in partnership between the government, Big Lottery Fund and the Co-op Foundation. It is the first ever government fund dedicated to reducing loneliness in England and aims to target people from all age groups and backgrounds. Funding will go to 126 organisations for new projects and funding has also been allocated to existing schemes.

The Bristol-based projects include:

Marmalade Helpline: The Marmalade Trust has been awarded £45,525 to expand a volunteer befriending service across the South West.

Freedom – Building Connections for LGBTQ+ Young People: Off the Record Bristol has received £99,433 to continue and expand its peer support and social action project for LGBTQ+ young people from across Bristol. 

Care Leavers Unite Bristol (CLUB): Barnardo’s has been awarded £79,828 to develop its programme of peer-support, activity groups, social action/campaigns and creative local events to offer different ways for isolated care leavers to engage and develop skills.

Woodland Enterprise and Tribe: St Werburgh’s City Farm has been awarded £73,970 to run two streams of activity for 16–18 year olds. Woodland Enterprise will support young people experiencing mental distress through an 8-week outdoor wellbeing programme where they will work as a group to develop an enterprise. They will then progress onto the "Tribe" – which will be a programme of volunteering at the farm.

A further Bristol-based project, Access All Ages, which is run by Alive Activities Limited has received £77,833 to geographically expand its reach into Hampshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. The project will deliver an intergenerational activity programme, partnering care settings with local schools to support older people in care in becoming more socially active.

Source: https://www.voscur.org/insight/news/four-bristol-based-projects-awarded-loneliness-funding

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