Sing it out Mama Press Release

PRESS RELEASE                                                                                            JANUARY 2018

Growing Regional Community Fund backs Sing It Out Mama!

Ossett based community project Sing It Out Mama! (pre/neo/postnatal singing for wellbeing) is one of 40 projects awarded a share of over £200,000 grant funding from a regional fund supporting local communities throughout Yorkshire and Humber.

Competition for funding was tough.  Social housing consortium Efficiency North’s EN:Able Community Investment Fund received over 90 applications for a total of nearly £411,000. Bids were received from a diverse range of excellent projects working to support the communities of social housing landlords throughout the region. Now in its sixth year of operation, the EN:Able Community Investment Fund has given a total of over £600,000 overall.

Think Cre8tive Group founded in September 2017 by a group of creative, education and health specialists to improve lives through music. The funding received will help run the Sing It Out Mama! project which aims to support new mums and mums-to-be to strengthen bonds between mother and child, build confidence and self-esteem, increase feelings of wellbeing and create new friendships.

The project has support from Health Visitor Sally Smith, councillor Darren Byford and Labour party candidate for Horbury and South Ossett Melanie Jones and will run from March 21st at Trinity Church in Ossett.

Melanie Jones commented: “after working for the National Health Service for over 20 years, I know how important health promotion and ill health prevention is for well-being. This project is an excellent example of early intervention to reduce the potential incidence of pre and post-natal depression and encourages holistic well-being.

The EN:Able Community Investment Fund is generated through Efficiency North’s procurement frameworks for construction and maintenance schemes for social housing.  The Fund is targeted at local projects that are sustainable over the long term, provide local employment opportunities, encourage self-sufficiency and that will also provide long term benefits for the wider local community, reflecting the 4 strategic aims of Efficiency North’s vision.

The fund will open for its next (seventh) round of applications in August 2018.

Melanie Cossins commented: “We are so pleased to have received this money to run this project. I suffered from post-natal depression following the birth of my first child, this can be a big change and often big changes are the ones that can cause feelings of loneliness, stress, and depression. Being involved in singing and music making has helped me improve my well-being and connected me to new friends and this is why I want to help other mums.”

Efficiency North’s Social Value Manager Paul Mitchell commented: “The standard of applications was again impressively high this year, with strong competition for much needed cash from excellent local projects. Efficiency North generates funding through our professional services for social housing landlords.  We’re very proud that our work has seen the funding pot grow year on year and that in 6 years we’ve trebled the total we’re able to offer.  The people making a real difference in their communities, in so many ingenious ways, are vital to the region’s social and economic growth.”

For more information about the fund and a list of all 40 projects backed this year please go to: http://www.efficiencynorth.org/what-we-do/community-investment-fund/

ENDS

Information for editors:

For more information about Sing It Out Mama! please contact Melanie Cossins on 07904 981504 mel@thinkcre8tivegroup.com. www.thinkcre8tivegroup.com

Background information about Efficiency North and the EN:Able Community Investment Fund:

Efficiency North is an award-winning collaborative consortium of social housing providers working together in a culture of collaboration, benchmarking best practice and peer knowledge sharing to generate efficiencies in the construction supply chain and provide intelligent procurement solutions for Yorkshire, Humber and the wider region.

The consortium’s vision is to work together with members to support their priorities and aspirations for their tenants and wider communities and to maximise its positive impact in 4 key areas: Efficiency, Workforce, Communities, and Sustainability.  All savings and any surplus made by the consortium are reinvested in local communities through the EN:Able Communities CIO with the aim of creating training and employment opportunities and improving local facilities.

The EN:Able Community Investment Fund  is one of the consortium’s delivery vehicles for social and economic regeneration in the communities of its member organisations. A Panel composed of EN member landlords’ tenant representatives and EN frameworks’ contractors evaluate all applications against an agreed framework reflecting the consortium’s 4 core strategic aims.  The Panel’s decision is then ratified by the Board of Trustees of Efficiency North’s charitable giving arm, the EN:Able Communities CIO.