PRESS RELEASE
Moving On Tyne & Wear, a project designed to tackle health barriers to employment in Tyne and Wear, has won through to stage two of the Big Lottery Fund’s ‘Building Better Opportunities’ (BBO) programme. BBO is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and the European Social Fund, providing resources to tackle poverty and promote social inclusion across the UK. Moving On Tyne & Wear is being developed by Everyturn Mental Health, in partnership with the Northern Inclusion Consortium.
Everyturn Mental Health (Everyturn Mental Health) is one of the North East’s leading charities. It supports and cares for people with mental health problems through a wide range of services, predominantly commissioned by the NHS and local authorities. Everyturn Mental Health is one the four founding members of the Northern Inclusion Consortium (NIC), which also includes DISC, Groundwork, and Changing Lives.
The combination of NIC partners provides a unique opportunity to collectively address issues in Tyne and Wear involving health, housing, addictions, and criminal justice needs, helping people to overcome entrenched barriers and long-term conditions to progress towards and into sustained employment. If successful at stage two of the BBO application, Moving on Tyne & Wear will help over 1,600 people with health conditions in Tyne and Wear to move towards and into employment.
Tyne and Wear is an area with very high levels of health deprivation; long-term sickness being the cause of over 28% of its economic inactivity. Moving On Tyne & Wear will focus on people aged 25 and over with complex health issues, who may also face other barriers to work, such as long-term unemployment, debt, low skills, or housing issues.
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
- The Big Lottery Fund is the largest funder of community activity in the UK. It puts people in the lead to improve their lives and communities, often through small, local projects.
- It is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by National Lottery players for good causes. Every year it invests over £650 million and awards around 12,000 grants across the UK for health, education, environment and charitable purposes.
- Since June 2004 it has awarded over £8 billion to projects that change the lives of millions of people. Since the National Lottery began in 1994, £34 billion has been raised and more than 450,000 grants awarded.
- Building Better Opportunities is jointly funded with the European Social Fund as part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England. The Department for Work and Pensions is the Managing Authority for the England European Social Fund programme. Established by the European Union, European Social Fund funds help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, skills development, job creation, social inclusion and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/england-2014-to-2020-european-structural-and-investment-funds.