More than £500,000 has been given to Newcastle organisations to give them support through the cost of living crisis.
This money became available due to the Winter Wellbeing Fund which was launched in November by Newcastle City Council.
They have since financially supported over 100 different Community Sector organisations in various different ways. £6,000 has been made available per organisation to enable them to cover rising costs, and another section of funding has been put towards providing people with food and other essential items.
An additional £500 was also made available to organisations that set up a Winter Wellbeing Hub, opening their doors to provide residents with a warm space to allow them to meet other people in a safe environment.
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Councillor Lesley Storey, Newcastle City Council cabinet member for a Vibrant City, has spoken about her pride at being able to provide this kind of financial support and why there has been a greater importance placed on helping out these organisations.
"The cost of living crisis has plunged more and more people into poverty with the cost of essential items like food and energy reaching record levels. That has placed an even greater emphasis on the excellent voluntary and community sector we have in Newcastle, which already does so much to help residents with a range of needs.
"I’m really proud that we’ve been able to support this essential sector at an incredibly difficult time, and it’s great to see some of the innovative ways they’ve been able to help residents and bring our communities closer together", she said.
One of the recipients of the Winter Wellbeing Fund are Silverline Memories, a charity based in Kenton that support people that are living with dementia.
They aim to provide 'places to go and things to do' for people living with the condition, as well as their families and carers. They do this through group activities and 1-1 support.
Joanne Wilkins of Silverline Memories, has also given her thoughts on the funding they have been given and why they decided to apply for it in the first place.
“We provide fun activities for people who are living with dementia and their families and carers. We also want to open up to the community, we want to get to know the community and we want them to come in and join us and share what we do with the community.
“We wanted greater contact with the community but because we don’t have community-based funding and we only have funding for people who are living with dementia, the idea in applying to the Winter Wellbeing Fund was to bring that funding in, get the community more involved, and provide some warmth and a space for people to come in for a tea or coffee and a chat.”
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