Hello everyone, David here doing my Blog for December. Oh my! How have we gotten here so quickly already, the end of another year and it has been quite the year. This year has flown by, because of the positive energy and enthusiasm that has gone in to the GHP and green health in North Ayrshire. I know it has been another difficult year in some aspects, but I do not want to focus on that.
Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund in North Ayrshire. There is a new fund available in North Ayrshire for those groups who work with adults to improve their mental health and wellbeing – this most certainly applies to green health. Providing significant investment into community support. The funding programme will be split into three tiers – grants of up to £2,000, £10,000 and a few allocations of up to £50,000. The aim of the fund is to focus on early intervention and primary care. For those green health projects who:
- promote and develop good mental health and wellbeing and to mitigate/protect against the impact of distress and mental ill health within the adult population:
- Tackle issues within the Scottish Governments Transition & Recovery Plan such as; suicide prevention, social isolation and loneliness and prevention and early intervention
- Address the mental health inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic and the needs of ‘at risk’ groups
Closing date for applications is Thursday 6th of January 2022 so get applying! Here is the link for the page or contact – vicki.yuill@arrancvs.org.uk.
There are more Green Health opportunities than ever before in North Ayrshire, some restrictions are still in place depending on the groups capacity. If you want to know what Green Health opportunities are available where you are then get in touch with me at d.meechan@tcv.org.uk or 07773 200525.
Another fund to make you all aware of is the Paths for All Open Fund, which is a Smarter Choices Smarter Places Fund. This fund supports travel behaviour change programmes with environmental outcomes. Applicants can apply for grants from £5,000 to £50,000 and there is no closing date. Types of green health projects that would suit the fund include: carbon emission reducing activities e.g. cycling and walking; and environmental projects that benefit the community, increase environmental sustainability and encourage greater use of sustainable forms of travel and more. Here is a link for the page.
A highlight of my year would be the resilience and passion shown by so many in North Ayrshire to not only get back to some normality, but also develop new green health programmes. This was reflected in our National Evaluation Data whereby we seen an increase across many partners and local community groups offering more green health activities despite the demanding times. I can see the importance of green health as a source of health and wellbeing improvement increase over the past year. Hopefully this continues and we can drive forward this agenda of mainstreaming it in to Year 4 and 5 of the NAGHP – which of course is another massive highlight.
If you want to know more about anything in our Blog, get in contact with me on d.meechan@tcv.org.uk or 07773 200525.
