Brightlingsea WinterFest’s Wellbeing Fund is giving a helping hand to deserving families and organisations in the town following the latest round of allocations from money raised at this year’s festival.
Five community groups – Brightlingsea Scouts, Brightlingsea Girls and Boys Brigade, the Brightlingsea Papercrafts Group, the Autumn Centre for family support and the performing arts group, Pulse Performers – are receiving grants of £250 each and 10 families are each being given Co-op vouchers worth £50.
The Wellbeing Fund was launched last year so that the majority of the money raised by Brightlingsea WinterFest goes back in to the town. A grant of £1,200 has also been give to the mental health charity Mid and North East Essex Mind.
Applications are being invited now for the next round of allocations from the Wellbeing Fund, which is able to award grants of £100 to individuals in Brightlingsea to help improve their physical, mental and social wellbeing. The grants are not given in cash, but can pay for such things as equipment, classes, book tokens, trips and activities.
This year’s WinterFest, held in February, was an outstanding success, with a wide range of events focussed on wellbeing, including music, arts, crafts,spoken word and exercise to promote health.
Alix Sheppard and Dave Griffiths, co-founders of Brightlingsea WinterFest said in a joint statement: “We are delighted to be able to distribute the latest round of Wellbeing Fund grants and vouchers for families and organisations in Brightlingsea.The vouchers are going to families who are struggling either financially or with health issues and very often both, which are particularly difficult to cope with at this time. The stories behind the applications were very moving, including people trying to cope with cancer and other major health problems, unemployment, mental illness and disability.”
The statement added: “We are grateful to the East of England Co-op for linking with us for the voucher scheme. We are also really grateful for all the support WinterFest has received from the local community.”
The Wellbeing Fund is open again and applications are welcome from people of all ages in Brightlingsea. To access a grant application form click here.
The closing date for the next round of grants is September 30th.