Nottinghamshire YMCA is delighted to announce that funding to deliver the ‘Building Better Opportunities’ programme has been approved for another two-and-a-half years.
As a national programme funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and The European Social Fund, Building Better Opportunities (BBO) empowers local projects to tackle the root causes of poverty by promoting social inclusion and supporting jobs for local people.
With the existing funding coming to an end, this project was scheduled to finish in September 2019. Thanks to this generous renewed investment however, Nottinghamshire YMCA can now continue to employ four staff members to deliver this vital frontline service until March 2022.
Under the larger BBO project, people living in supported accommodation at Nottinghamshire YMCA can access strand programmes of intensive support called ‘Opportunity and Change’ and ‘Money Sorted in D2N2’ during their time at YMCA, which continue as the resident moves towards living independently.
The aim of the ‘Opportunity and Change’ project is to support people who are homeless or vulnerably housed,misusing substances, have mental health issues, experiencing domestic abuse, or are current/ex-offenders. With concentrated support from the BBO team, Nottinghamshire YMCA works to help people resolve their complex needs and become socially and economically included through access to education, training and employment.
“BBO enables us to deliver much-needed personal keyworker support to our charity’s hostel residents with complex needs,” explained Gillian Costello, Community and Social Work Manager at Nottinghamshire YMCA.
“We are all so grateful as this grant is indescribably important for ensuring our community’s most vulnerable members continue to receive the support they need along their journey to achieving independent living.”
For more information about this initiative, please visit our ‘Building Better Opportunities’ webpage.
