LEICESTER is set to receive over £2.6million for a new council-led programme to support some of the most disadvantaged adults in the city.
Leicester is one of 15 local partnerships across the country to have successfully bid to the Government’s Changing Futures programme for a three-year project to change and improve the systems and support available to some of the most vulnerable people in our community. In total, Leicester’s Changing Futures project will receive £2,619,664.
The Changing Futures programme is a £64 million joint initiative by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK. The fund is for local organisations to work in partnership to better support those who experience multiple disadvantage, including homelessness, substance misuse, mental health issues, and contact with the criminal justice system.
In Leicester, the funding will pay for a new multi-agency team that will provide intensive and specialist support to the people in most need alongside developing priority pathways into existing services so that individuals can get the right support at the right time.
The team will include lived experience workers to make sure services are designed and delivered to encourage sustained engagement.
Deputy City Mayor Cllr Piara Singh Clair said: “Thanks to funding from the government and National Lottery Community Fund, this new scheme will allow us to deliver a programme of support to some of the most vulnerable people in our city.
“It will enhance the wide range of support already available in the city. The new priority pathways will help ensure that people who are experiencing a challenging and often entrenched mix of problems and disadvantage are supported with an individually-tailored programme that aims to help them to stabilise and improve their lives and change their futures for the better.
“I would like to congratulate the team behind this successful bid. It will make a real difference to people’s lives and build on the work of our street lifestyles operational group, homeless teams and amazing local charities who have all done an amazing job during exceptionally challenging times.”
John Leach, Leicester City Council director of neighbourhood and environmental services, said: “The local partnership behind this successful bid is truly multi-agency involving the city council, the voluntary and community sector, health and the police.
“The reality is, as agencies, we all come across individuals experiencing the sort of multiple disadvantages that this project is intended to reach. This much-needed funding will allow us to develop and transform our approach by providing support that focusses on an individual’s lived experience, in order to help people change their futures for the better.”
The Leicester Changing Futures programme will get underway this summer and will form part of a national programme.