Hull FC Community Foundation
Hull FC Community Foundation’s project, ‘Part of the Team’, utilised personal development, social, and wellbeing activities to reduce isolation and loneliness.
Read MoreThe Tackling Loneliness programme
In February 2021, we awarded 60 grants through the Tackling Loneliness programme. These were fixed grants of £70,000 for a two-year period, that sought to reduce social isolation in Armed Forces communities.
The projects were all working with traditionally ‘harder to reach’ groups of beneficiaries, to encourage more people to engage in their community, access services and provision and build stronger networks with peers, support organisations and service providers.
We commissioned an external evaluation of this programme with Neighbourly Lab, the Campaign to End Loneliness and the King’s Centre for Military Health Research, and this showed that the programme has been successful in meeting its aims.
Tackling Loneliness projects have just completed their third progress report and are on track to have completed spending their two-year funding by the end of April 2023. Reporting shows how socioeconomic, cultural and mental barriers are being addressed through this diverse range of projects across the UK and providing effective support to those most vulnerable veterans.
Across the total number of projects, 47% have put plans in place to continue popular activities beyond the life of the award. One example of this is Help for Heroes, who are developing a standalone ‘Buddy Scheme’ following a pilot they conducted during the original award in Wales – with the aim of rolling out a sustainable service across the UK beyond the life of the continuation project.
The Trust ran an experimental programme, offering additional tapered grants to eligible grant holders, to support longer term impact. We offered a small grant towards an additional year of activity, with a requirement for match funding. 19 continuation grants were awarded.
Kent Coast Volunteering committed to working alongside the Folkestone Nepalese/Ghurka community. Their positive outcomes include beneficiaries openly celebrating their customs and practices within the wider Folkestone community, by wearing traditional attire – something they did not feel comfortable doing before engaging with the project.
They are looking at future income generation to sustain the project further and have recruited a qualified English teacher to support beneficiaries in learning English (language was identified as a barrier to integration).
Case studies
