City Bridge Trust launches scheme to support resilience of voluntary sector workers
Melanie May | 15 May 2019 | News
City Bridge Trust has issued a call to charities to design and deliver six-month pilot projects to develop the resilience of charity staff and volunteers.
The call is for initial expressions of interest, and follows London Funders’ report The resilience of people in community-facing organisations: what’s the role of funders?, which finds a growing need to protect the mental health of charity staff and volunteers as community-facing workers who directly interact with users experience increased pressure and demand.
To coincide with #mentalhealthawarenessweek2019, today we are launching our Responding to the Resilience Risk open call for proposals. We are seeking pilots to develop the resilience of frontline workers. Deadline for submissions is 14th June. https://t.co/sOZHoL0W80
— City Bridge Foundation (@CityBridgeFndn) May 14, 2019
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A panel of professionals working in the mental health and charitable sectors will help shortlist these initial expressions of interest, from which a selection will be invited to work up fuller proposals. Final recommendations for funding these programmes will also be made by this panel.
The successful projects will receive funding from City Bridge Trust. The aim is to see pilot projects start in October 2019 and be completed by March 2020.
City Bridge Trust will commission an external evaluation of the pilot projects, to be shared during Mental Health Awareness Week 2020. The findings will help design and deliver more impactful resilience programmes in the future.
Dhruv Patel, Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s City Bridge Trust Committee, said:
“Charity staff and volunteers provide an essential service to customers and clients, but they can often feel overwhelmed. Dealing with such complex emotional issues can result in anxiety, depression, burnout, and even secondary trauma. We want charity staff and volunteers to have the right skills to work effectively without being personally compromised. Through City Bridge Trust, we are committed to supporting the people that are the first point of call for so many of us.”
The deadline is 14 June, and more information on how to apply is on the City Bridge Trust site.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.