Investing into our communities
We are committed to creating sustainable neighbourhoods and increasing investment in communities that help to improve local services and provides opportunities that help customers to become more financially independent.
During the last year, we have invested £100,000 into our network of community centres and secured £105,000 of funding from our contractors and partners for a range of projects and services within our communities.
Through the creation of new partnerships and projects with organisations such as Burnley FC, Pop-up Business School, First Choice Homes and Barclays, we have created services and community projects in our neighbourhoods, engaging with more than 1,000 customers.
One of our customers to benefit from the funding was Stuart Hutton-Brown. His career journey has taken him from retail to counselling, where he now provides an increasingly vital service thanks to a £3,000 donation.
By his own admission, he’s grateful for the help we have been able to provide in his personal life as a customer and in his mission to support the people of Blackpool with their mental health.
After spending 30 years in retail and following a period of sickness, Stuart made the brave decision for his own wellbeing to leave the shop floor and retrain as a counsellor.
While retraining he became increasingly aware of the extent to which current local counselling services were struggling to cope with demand, and many local people were finding it hard to access timely support to help them cope with a range of mental health issues.
The service he is providing in the region has reached around 120 people and deals with a variety of mental health issues including trauma, PTSD and people suffering from anxiety and depression. Along with Stuart, there are 34 volunteer counsellors and an administrator helping ensure Counselling in the Community remains able to help people who need them.
He said: “None of this would have been possible without the help of Great Places. I'm a Great Places customer and as I had to retire due to ill health, they were able to help me organise my rent payments. They couldn't have been more helpful and this has allowed me to put all my efforts into Counselling in the Community.
“The £3,000 in financial support they have given the service to help us get established and the advice and guidance have been invaluable. There have been some difficult times but we are now about to open our second centre and we have 34 volunteer counsellors and an administrator who are doing amazing things.”