SCF Annual Review 2022-23

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Right: Feed Avalon hosted a seed saving class delivered by Plotgate Community Farm. 10 Annual Review 2022/23 Making sure healthier food is available for everyone has become incredibly difficult during the cost-of-living crisis. Left: Taking part in the Grow Your Own Veg Plot workshop at a community garden. Improving health and wellbeing We all know that eating a healthy, balanced diet is important for our wellbeing. But making sure healthier food is available for everyone has become incredibly difficult during the cost-of-living crisis, with food inflation at more than 20%, pushing the cost of an average shopping basket through the roof. While foodbanks can’t solve inflation, they remain a crucial safety net. So, while we continued to fund foodbanks during the year, we also worked together with Somerset Council to invest in more sustainable solutions by creating a fund to support communities to grow and cook more of their own food. This included giving £10,000 to a new group called Wellington Community Food. With this money, they’re creating an 18-acre community farm. This will allow them to pilot a volunteer-supported model supplying affordable fruit and vegetables to the local community and schools, and upskilling the community in how to grow their own. We were also able to support Feed Avalon in Glastonbury. They ran courses on how to cook on a budget, preserve foods, and swap seeds. In total, we gave out over £80,000 for projects like this. The ways we support local people’s health and wellbeing extend far beyond food. Funding for Somerset Arts Well helped the Wells-based group deliver Singing for the Brain, a weekly music session for people living with dementia and memory problems, and their carers. We also funded places like the Carymoor Environmental Trust, in Castle Cary, to manage their therapeutic green spaces to engage disadvantaged groups in nature-themed activities. Our funding is also designed to benefit people facing a particular health and wellbeing challenge, including organisations that support people with acquired brain injuries, such as Headway on the next page, and people with cancer or people in need of end of life care.
Annual Review 2022/23 11 Liz Simmons, CEO at Headway Somerset, explains how we helped secure services and scale up ambitions. We give people the opportunity to live their lives to the maximum. Case Study: Headway Somerset We work with people with acquired brain injuries in Somerset. People sustain their injures in different ways, including in an accident, from a fall, or an assault, from an infection like meningitis, a tumour or lack of oxygen. Basically, we’re trying to give clients lifelong support for whatever they need, for as long as they need it. It’s giving them the opportunity to have the life they want to lead and live that life to the maximum. Each person is affected to different degrees. There’s the physical disabilities and sensory loss – but also cognitive issues as well. Depending on the part of their brain that’s injured people might have issues around managing their emotions or processing information. These are hidden disabilities that can really impact people’s daily lives. All too often they can get labelled as ‘awkward’ or ‘difficult’. We employ hospital liaison workers who talk to people and their families to support them through the early days, weeks and months of hospital. Sometimes it’s about giving them information or a listening ear. Or it can be more complex, like helping children understand what’s happened to their mum, dad or sibling. Our rehabilitation service starts with assessment, then we work on developing strategies, helping people manage their household or re-connect with their community. Our Making Headway volunteer project gives people an opportunity to connect socially, try out new interests and build new networks of support. Growing in confidence and resilience “Grant funding from Somerset Community Foundation has been incredibly important to us. We’ve had a tough year with fundraising because of the cost-of-living crisis. First of all, the funding helped us do practical things like pay rents and make sure we could continue to run our services. What it also enabled us to do was have space to reflect on what we learned from the pandemic. Out of that we developed a three-year plan with ways to grow further and meet more of the needs of our people. It’s incredible to hear how those we work with go on a journey with us. People develop not just confidence, but resilience too. They also gain acceptance: this is my life and this is what I’m going to do next.”
Page 1 and 2: 2022/2023 Annual Review
Page 3 and 4: Annual Review 2022/23 01 Message fr
Page 5 and 6: Our Impact 2022/2023 How we spent o
Page 7 and 8: The need for our work The cost-of-l
Page 9 and 10: Annual Review 2022/23 07 Right: Som
Page 11: Annual Review 2022/23 09 The Space
Page 15 and 16: Annual Review 2022/23 13 A village
Page 17 and 18: Annual Review 2022/23 15 The 2022/2
Page 19 and 20: Somerset Cost-of- Living Crisis App
Page 21 and 22: Annual Review 2022/23 19 Improved c
Page 23 and 24: Annual Review 2022/23 21 Improved m
Page 25 and 26: Annual Review 2022/23 23 Improved c
Page 27 and 28: Annual Review 2022/23 25 Increased
Page 29 and 30: Annual Review 2022/23 27 Photo cred
Page 31 and 32: Our vision, mission and values Annu

SCF Annual Review 2022-23

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?