It's that time again where we get the fantastic job of telling you all about the amazing projects funded by this round of Live Well Wakefield Small Grants.

In March, we invited applications from VCSE organisations for projects that meet health and wellbeing related needs, and build strength within communities. We were once again blown away by the response, thank you to all interested organisations for your innovative ideas and passion for your communities.

Over £130,000 has been awarded to 19 organisations, so here's some information on who and what was funded...

Age UK Wakefield District

Be the Difference

Age UK Wakefield District are opening up volunteering opportunities to clients who have become stronger through their services. Support workers will refer interested clients to their Volunteering team, who work with the client to find the best volunteering role for them - this includes internal and external roles so they can find better fitting volunteering opportunities.  

Aphasia Support

Aphasia Support is a charity that provides 121 support and group support for people with aphasia across Wakefield. This funding will support the running of their Wakefield App Club, which will run from September 2023 to March 2024 at Balne Lane Community Centre. The group support will involve the charity's speech and language therapist supporting 12 people for 10 consecutive weeks.

Bring Me to Life - Women's Wellness CIC

Own My Life

Own My Life is a 12-week course to help women who have been subjected to abuse to regain ownership of their lives. The course sessions will equip women with the skills to understand abuse, make sense of their lives and move forward with hope and positivity. With an overarching aim to contribute to reducing VAWG (violence against women and girls) in Wakefield through education and empowerment. 

THRIVE

THRIVE is a holistic, integrative approach to mental wellbeing that focuses on the individual. THRIVE supports women to identify areas of their life that may be causing them stress or anxiety and empowers them to take control of their own health and wellbeing through developing self- management skills, coping mechanisms and building resilience. 

Evergreen Active

Move Eat Talk

Paula and Andy of Evergreen Active CIC understand that a person’s overall wellbeing isn’t just about how physically active they are. It also relies upon positive life choices, support and inclusion and most importantly, they believe, having fun! The programme for families incorporates:

• Fun activities and gamesthat anyone of any age can join in with, succeed at and enjoy together
• Family cookingsessions - making healthy and tasty meals on a budget together
• Group meal and chat –with discussions, support and advice ranging from the cost-of-living crisis tothe menopause and everything in between!

Sessions take place on Thursdays from 5.30pm to 7.30pm (15 June to 23 November 2023) at Community Hall at The Bandroom, Gawthorpe. Email hello@evergreenactive.co.uk or text 07948 623270 with any questions.

Featherstone Rovers Foundation

Feel Good in Featherstone Coffee Morning

Featherstone Rovers Foundation deliver projects and activities within the Featherstone, former 5 towns area and wider parts of the Wakefield District. They use the power of sport and the Featherstone Rovers RLFC reputation to give the community skills to lead fulfilled, healthy, and active lifestyles.

Weekly coffee morning sessions every Monday from 10.30am to 12.30pm. They can also take part in weekly activities of their choosing, including quizzes, prize bingo, family fortunes, and gardening. The Foundation also plan to extend our offer of activities to include more outdoor activities.

Frickley Athletic in the Community CIC

Brain & Body

Frickley Athletic in the Community CIC's services focus on physical exercise which is a direct link to the improvement of mental health. 12 months of beginners fitness classes, art and craft family sessions and a memory focus group delivered to capture forgotten/precious memories of those suffering with dementia or similar conditions through the use of music.

Gasped

Talking Out

Gasped is a Wakefield District based charity which delivers a range of practical and emotional support focussing on the more deprived areas of the district. With “Talking out” they aim to open their reach to more individuals in need of help with counselling and support within the South East district of Wakefield.

Grow Wakefield

Portobello Community Mini Allotments and Edible Gardening Club

With this funding, Grow Wakefield will be turning an unloved and unused piece of land in Portobello into 12 Community Mini Allotment plots and to run weekly “Edible Gardening” sessions. This will help participants to improve their overall health whilst developing food growing skills in a convenient, community setting.

Kidz Aware

Voices United

Kidz Aware will deliver support for the families of a disabled person, with the aim of creating sustainable interventions that will empower the individual and their family with the skills to become more self-reliant. This includes the following services:

• Information, Advice and Guidance
• Mental Health and Wellbeing Awareness
• Debt Advice/ Benefit Entitlements 
• Attend PIP/ESA Appeals Signposting and Referrals           
• Family Support - person centred planning/short and long-term support.
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Educational Training workshops

Memory Action Group

Memory Action Group (MAG) is a peer support group for people living with dementia and their carers and holds a drop in centre at West Wakefield Methodist Church (WF2 8QR) every Wednesday and Friday afternoon 2pm - 4pm. MAG offers lots of different games, information and activities, including monthly singalongs, chair exercises and bi-annual day trips. It's a great place to meet people and make new friends with those who are now experiencing a similar experience living with dementia or caring for someone living with dementia.

Contact Jan Archbold for further information on 01924365213 or email memoryactiongroup@gmail.com

MJ Languages

Community Language Support

MJ Languages supports vulnerable people from the Eastern European Community. The Community Language Support Project offers a translation and interpreting service (Polish and English) to help people access support from a wide range of services for example, GPs, JobCentres and the Council.

One Ummah Community CIC

Empower Women for Bright Health Future

One Ummah are a small new CIC providing services for people from different backgrounds such as Syrian, Sudanese, Gambian and Marco and more. The funding will be used for a 1 hour weekly women’s wellbeing, education session for 6 months. The sessions will be held alternately at Hive and Lawefield Primary School.

The project will support vulnerable women by increase their awareness regarding their rights and support available. The project takes a holistic look at health delivering physical, mental and wider determinants of health (housing budgeting etc) to enable women to self-manage their own health and wellbeing.

Open Country

Wheelchair Accessible Minibus for Open Country Service Users

Open Country is a registered charity which exists to enable people living with disabilities to access and enjoy the countryside. Their Wakefield hub runs a timetable of outdoor activities in and around the Wakefield area. In order to run these services, wheelchair accessible minibuses are needed to transport members to and from the starting points. Some members are wheelchair users and rely on this to be a part of Open Country. The seats of the adaptable minibuses can be removed to transport the fleet of tandems to the start of each weekly tandem ride.

One of the minibuses is becoming unreliable and expensive to maintain and needs to be replaced. The funding from Live Well Wakefield will provide the deposit for this new minibus so that Open Country Wakefield can continue doing the great work that it does.

Second Chance Headway

A Different Me!

The project is to create a pilot study to provide specialised sessions in support of brain injured adults. The sessions will be directed around awareness and focused towards supported self-management. They will provide understanding and coping mechanisms to enable ‘A Different Me!’ They will include topics such as health, social skills, nutrition, fatigue management, practical skills and money management.

St Catherine's Church Centre

Stay & Play

A free weekly ‘stay and play’ session for carers/parents and preschool children on Tuesday’s each week between 10am – 12pm. Included will be a wide range of play activities and educational toys to assist the child’s developmental needs.

For adults the session will provide a relaxed, welcoming, friendly atmosphere where they can make new friends and increase social networking. Staff and volunteers will also provide information, signposting and referrals to our network of Health Professionals/other agencies and their in-projects which can support individuals/families in a range of ways including debt, benefits, mental health support, access to training etc. 

Turning Minds Around

Reaching the Polish Community

Wakefield has a significant Polish community who live and work within our district. This community as with our other residents have had their mental health and wellbeing impacted by the recent pandemic and financial crisis. The language barrier is a large hurdle to overcome when working in talking therapies, which often results in people from other countries avoiding counselling due to lack of communication.

This funding will enable Turning Minds Around to help create links with our Polish residents through meetings/ advertising and social media. They will work to promote positive mental wellbeing through a Polish speaking counsellor or interpreted therapy.

Wakefield Autism Leisure Club

Moving More for Autism

Wakefield Autism Leisure Club supports adults with autism and other learning difficulties. The club meets three times a week and offer sporting activities (multi-sports, football, bowls & swimming).

Wakefield District Sight Aid

Community Outreach Programme

Wakefield District Sight Aid’s services aims to enable and empower people with visual impairment to live the lives they want to live. The charity’s focus is on supporting people to live well with sight loss, both physically and mentally, reducing interventions required by healthcare services.

The community outreach programme tackles the social isolation, loneliness and poor mental health commonly experienced by people with sight loss and has been a vital part of the organisation’s service offering for many years. This includes:

• Provision of a telephone helpline 4 days a week
• Three monthly talk and support coffee mornings and a monthly younger members’ social group.
• Social events and trips.
• A volunteer-led telephone befriending service.
• One-to-one support on a variety of sight loss related matters, including ordering and issuing assistive equipment.

Wakefield Hospice

Education and Support for families and carers of people living with frailty

Wakefield Hospice is running two eight week programmes to promote positive approaches to living well with frailty and supporting carers with adjustments in coping with change. Each session will last for two hours and carers are encouraged to bring the person they care for with them, as the Wakefield Hospice staff and volunteers will give them support in a room adjacent to where the training is taking place and offer an hour’s exercise programme promoting staying active.

For more information please contact Wakefield Hospice on 01924 331400.

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The Live Well Wakefield Small Grants Fund is funded by Wakefield Council and distributed through the Third Sector Framework. Funding is allocated via the grants panel, which involves colleagues from Nova, Live Well Wakefield, Wakefield Council, and a nominated Community Anchor.

Keep an eye out for more funding opportunities coming very soon!