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Changing lives Inspiring Communities

We invested £1m into a three-year programme of work focusing on the prevention of vulnerability in our district – our Inspiring Communities programme. Working in a truly collaborative way, we have been able to tackle key issues

That Affect

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our residents.

We want to continue to build upon the strengths of this programme, and help our residents lead healthy, happy and fulfilling lives with targeted services available to make a real difference within our community.

You are not alone

Anyone can be affected by mental health issues at any point in their lives, we have therefore increased our focus on prevention and wellbeing, and to make the routes into mental health services easier to understand.

We have now established the Breckland Mental Health Community Partnership and delivered Mindful Towns mental health training for community groups and small businesses. This programme has developed a network of almost 300 trained Mental Health Champions across the district who can listen and signpost residents to organisations offering mental health support. We have also funded lifechanging mental health support with Breckland YAB (Youth Advisory Board), aimed at helping young people awaiting access to psychological clinical interventions.

Supporting Domestic abuse survivors

Anyone can be affected by domestic abuse, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality or background. We have therefore funded the Daisy Programme, a local expert charity, to recruit a Community & Early Help worker to support survivors of domestic abuse, whilst our Housing Team have now recruited specialist staff to offer support to help residents rebuild their lives.

Tackling social isolation and loneliness

Social isolation is becoming more prevalent and is associated with increased health risks and higher rates of hospital admissions. We are funding programmes to support our residents and break down social isolation, including funding Breckland Arts For Health (formerly The Silver Social) and working with CAN Connect (Community Action Network).

Working in partnership to develop community supermarkets

We have been working with the Norfolk Community Foundation to address food poverty within our community and signpost residents for further help, including advice around debt management, employment and mental health support.

In the last three years we have helped launch the Breckland Mobile Food Store, funded Norfolk’s first community supermarket at the Charles Burrell Centre in Thetford, and supported The Pantry in Kenninghall, Dereham’s Food Cabin and the Watton Food Hub

Each of these services provide healthy, affordable, nutritious food including fresh fruit and veg alongside a range of chilled and store cupboard basics and household items.

Get more information on Breckland Food hubs here! www.breckland.gov.uk/ communities/brecklandfood-hubs

Community Development

To support the development of our communities over the last three years Breckland Council has issued over £300,000 grants to various local charities, community groups and support organisations. These grants have attracted a further £250,000 in regional of national funding awards back into the district and helped get new schemes up and running locally.

Social Prescribing

We are now commissioned by the NHS to deliver a Social Prescribing service across Mid-Norfolk Primary Care Network. Our ‘Community Connectors’ spend time getting to know patients and listening to their whole story.

Patients are empowered to work through their issues, for example tackling debt or finance worries, loneliness, domestic abuse or welfare concerns.

Supporting residents towards a debt-free future

We have funded Citizen Advice charities in Breckland to help provide help and integrated debt and welfare advice in Thetford and Dereham.

The enhanced service offers advice on benefit entitlement, assistance with applications and comprehensive financial assessments to help people get out of debt.

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