ESBCA Awards – vote for your favourite community project!

As part of the 2019 East Suffolk Business & Community Awards, the public are invited to vote on the Enabling Communities Award. The finalists for this award have been shortlisted from all the community projects that have received funding from the East Suffolk Enabling Communities Budget or Exemplar Grant over the past 18 months.

Voting is open to the public until Monday, 30^th September. Cast your vote online at  scbca.co.uk/awards/enabling-communities. The winner will be announced at the awards dinner at The Hangar, Kesgrave Hall on 3^rd October.

Overview of the finalists

Headway Suffolk

Headway Suffolk is a local charity that offers care, support and rehabilitation to people with a neurological condition, this includes; traumatic brain injury, stroke, MS, Parkinson’s and dementia. All staff are trained in care and neurological conditions. The Charity also supports families and offers counselling.  The Charity has two main hubs, one in Ipswich and the other in Bury St Edmunds.  It has been operating in Felixstowe Community hospital for over a year, for one day a week. The service is open to in patients and members of the community so that there is seamless care post discharge.  Headway has been so successful in the hospital that it now operates two days a week and were asked by Aldeburgh Hospital to start a service there, they are also about to open in Hartismere Hospital.

Headway Suffolk also offers a specialised home care and community care team throughout Suffolk, helping people to get their lives back after brain injury.

Hour Community Trishaw project

The team at Hour Community were so impressed with the Cycling Without Age project, and the impact that it was having on the beneficiaries, that they decided they wanted to do the same in Framlingham and set about raising £8,000 to purchase and insure a Trishaw to get elderly residents out in their local community.  After a successful fundraising campaign, and exceeding the original target by raising £16,000, a traditional two-seater trishaw and a wheelchair version was purchased.  The project has enabled those residents who might spend long periods at home to get out and about.  It has quite literally been life changing for many, reducing periods of time spent alone and alleviating feelings of loneliness and isolation.

The Woodbridge Dementia Project

The Woodbridge Dementia Project was launched in April 2018 by the Seckford Foundation in a drive to make Woodbridge a dementia friendly community. Working in partnership with a coalition of organisations in and around Woodbridge, including Gotelee Solicitors, Home Instead, Suffolk Coastal District Council, the East of England Co-op and Woodbridge Rotary Club, the aim is to engage the local community, including businesses, family carers and people living with dementia to help make Woodbridge a dementia-friendly town.

It is estimated that 40% of people living with dementia feel isolated from their local community and the aim of the project is to engage the community and ensure that venues, businesses and community groups have a better understanding of dementia and how small actions can have a positive impact for a person living with this condition.

The dementia-friendly town campaign is part of the Alzheimer’s Society’s national Dementia Friends initiative.

Councillor Letitia Smith, cabinet member for Communities, Leisure and Tourism said of the shortlisted finalists; “As always, there are some great community groups and projects being delivered in East Suffolk and I know that our Enabling Communities team had a real tough time this year in deciding the finalists for this special award.

“This award helps us recognise and celebrate the hard work and commitment local groups, individuals and business put in to improve their local areas and the lives of others. It only takes a few minutes to vote, so make sure you get yours in before time runs out.”

To find out more about East Suffolk Council’s funding opportunities, visit: www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/community/community-grants-and-funding