12th August 2024
A fundamental objective for Cumbria Community Foundation is to provide charities and voluntary organisations with the financial means to deliver worthwhile and meaningful long-term services for our communities.
Established in 2012, The Laurie Brewis Trust provides a day service that offers social and educational opportunities to adults with a learning or physical disability. A wide range of activities are available including arts and crafts, IT and media, sports and exercise, cookery, and a café service.
Around 70 people attend the Trust’s rural site north of Carlisle, and other sessions take place in various locations across North and East Cumbria.
The Trust’s Better Together project has brought together intergenerational groups from different backgrounds and demographics. The Foundation’s funding is contributing to a facilitator for the project, as well as transportation costs to get participants to the activity sessions.
The funding has enabled a number of activity sessions to flourish. Two examples are an activity group at Gosling Syke in Houghton that focusses on upcycling, and Therapeutic Seated Aerobics sessions at Currock Community Centre in Carlisle.
Thanks to funding from the Cumbria Fund and the Pappagallino Fund totalling £20,757, the Foundation has committed to pay the grant for three years to embed the projects and help encourage participation.
Systems and Governance Manager Eleanor Farquharson said: “Having three years of grant funding from CCF has allowed us to get these groups established with regular attendees and provides us all with continuity.
“Better Together has successfully mixed vulnerable groups that would, without the sessions, never meet or socialise.”
At the end of the first year, the Trust reported that the project is already making a big difference, providing a safe and secure place to go to, and enabling people to socialise and participate in meaningful activities of their choosing.
Of 100 participants surveyed, 91% said that mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, stress and loneliness had been reduced. Of those picked up by transport, 88% stated that without this service they would not be able to attend sessions due to mobility and financial issues.
One participant, a 75-year-old woman with limited mobility living in sheltered accommodation, said: “This activity is brilliant! I don’t have to worry about transport, it just picks me up. I love chatting to all my friends and have made new friends too. I see these sessions as a day trip out which doesn’t happen otherwise.
“I have problems getting off my seat and walking over kerbs and without support I’m not sure I’d come. Better Together provide support workers to help me with this. I feel most empowered!”
The experience of the Laurie Brewis Trust, combined with the generosity of Cumbria Community Foundation’s fundholders is clearly having an impact. Knowing that funding is in place gives groups such as the Trust the opportunity to plan and advertise future activities with confidence.