Cash to combat loneliness

The award-winning charity Kimberworth Park Community Partnership will receive £484,780 over five years from the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund for its new Opening Doors Project. 

This group said the windfall would help them to continue to address isolation and loneliness in Kimberworth Park among older people, young people and families.

KPCP — announced this week as the regional winner of a national charity competition to win a £1,000 grant —  has over the past year been looking at the impact of isolation and loneliness through its different services and projects.

Barry Kaye, chairman of directors, said: “This is amazing news and we are most grateful to the Big Lottery for their continued faith in KPCP’s ability to deliver services to the community.  

“This extremely generous funding now enables us to tackle isolation and loneliness in our community, the impact of which will make a significant difference to many people’s lives.

“This grant will also provide us with a great opportunity to focus the attention of the Kimberworth Park community on these issues and we will be encouraging local people and agencies to join us in supporting people to be feel included in community life.”

Community-driven KPCP aims to ease the pressure on the public sector while boosting individuals’ and family’s confidence and ability to be self-sufficient.

The group’s latest cash grant follows a near-£500,000 influx from the Big Lottery in 2012 for the upgrade and refurbishment of Kimberworth Park’s Chislett Centre which is now a well-used “community hub”.

And in a further boost, KPCP has scooped £1,000 in the Against all Odds category of the Lloyds Bank Foundation Charity Achievement Awards and is shortlisted for one of six national prizes, with the winners to be announced in October.

Judges said they were impressed with the way the partnership transformed a publicly funded service on the brink of collapse into a triumphant example of community spirit after local authority funding was drastically and unexpectedly cut in 2011 with the closure of its young people’s centre and many other services.

A spokesman said: “KPCP rallied public support and lobbied for the power to manage the young people’s centre and other services. 

“The charity proved that when the community worked together it was possible to overcome times of hardship and raise the money to save much needed services.”

For more information about KPCP visit http://www.kimberworthpark.org.uk/.