Stevenage Borough Council wins National Lottery Funding

Stevenage Borough Council is celebrating after being awarded £276,763 (over the three years) in National Lottery funding to support the work through their Better Life Through Better Living Programme. The council will use the money to provide weekly physical and social engagement activities, and monthly inclusion and health workshops, delivered in partnership with Everyone Active. The funding will also enable them to increase the Tenancy Sustainment Team, so help can be offered to people who suffer from mental health problems associated with hoarding.

The council will be working in partnership with MIND in Mid Herts to run a hoarding support therapy group where affected residents can work through their issues with a trained mental health professional. Towards the end of the programme, MIND will offer group facilitation training to staff, building their capacity to continue delivering these sessions.

Jackie Hollywell, Executive Member - Community Safety and Equalities, says: “We’re delighted to have been awarded this National Lottery Community Fund grant. It will go a long way in enabling us to increase the number of engagement activities and workshops to offer support to those who will really benefit from it. The team is looking forward to working alongside the likes of MIND and other partners such as Everyone Active to deliver this service to our community and, together, I really hope that we can positively impact the lives of people living within Stevenage.”

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.

As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive, and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year The National Lottery Community Fund was able to distribute over half a billion pounds (£615.4 million) of life-changing funding to communities. To find out more visit The National Lottery Community Fund website.