Grants awarded of £120,000 as a way to tackle health inequalities

Wednesday 27 November 2019

We are delighted to announce the successful applicants under the Elevate Mentoring & Grants Programme. This programme offers a range of training, networking and support opportunities as well as a grant of £5,000 so the successful groups can bring their ideas to life, focusing on using community development approaches to reduce health inequalities at a local level.

South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust area

Ballynahinch Men’s Shed, Ballynahinch, County Down
Loughinisland GAC, Loughinisland, County Down
Sir Hans Sloane Visitor & Education Centre, Killyleagh, County Down
Ballykinlar & Tyrella Cross Community Association, Ballykinlar, County Down
Let’s Do Veterans Rehabilitation Charity, Seaforde, County Down

Belfast Health & Social Care Trust area

Streetbeat Youth Assocation, Belfast
Ardoyne Association, Belfast
Clare CIC, Belfast
Mencap NI, Belfast

Northern Health & Social Care Trust area

Glens Youth & Community Centre, Ballymena, County Antrim
Garvagh Community Association, Garvagh, County Derry/Londonderry
Cancer Focus NI, Northern Area Project, County Antrim
VOYPIC NI, Northern Area Project, County Antrim

Western Health & Social Care Trust

The Churches Trust, County Derry/Londonderry
Men’s Health Network, County Derry/Londonderry
Omagh Comhaltas, Omagh, County Tyrone
The Courthouse Limited, Kesh, County Fermanagh
Turas Na nDaoine, Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh

Southern Health & Social Care Trust

An Tobar CIC, Silverbridge, County Armagh
Lower Mourne Vintage Club, Kilkeel, County Down
The Cormac Trust, Benburb, County Tyrone
The Brain Injury Foundation, Camlough, County Armagh
South Armagh Rural Women’s Network, County Armagh

Mentoring organisations have been appointed in each Trust area – they are Mid and East Antrim Agewell Partnership (MEAAP) for the Northern Trust area, Co Down Rural Community Network (CDRCN) for the South Eastern Trust area, ARC Healthy Living Centre for the Western Trust area, Supporting People and Communities Every Day (SPACE) for the Southern area and Women’s Tec for the Belfast Trust area. Successful groups will benefit from the support of the mentoring organisations through shared experiences, guidance and networking opportunities as well as training around health inequalities to take forward ideas at local community level.

Catherine Murnin, Programme Manager, said ‘I was delighted to see so many applications from a wide range of groups who were all very worthy of the mentoring support and funding. Projects ranged from those which aimed to reduce social isolation in men living with mental health challenges to those who wished to develop volunteering skills and connect people to activities in rural areas. We also had an application from a group that would use community development approaches to support families caring for a child with a disability and one that wanted to develop processes to ensure that cancer services available were accessible to everyone.”

Catherine continued ‘ We are excited to see how this work progresses over the coming months. There are so many opportunities within the mentoring and grants programme to expand community development approaches and build capacity for local groups to focus on reducing health inequalities. It will be great to share the learning from this.’