City Bridge Trust has today issued a call to charities to design and deliver six-month pilot projects to develop the resilience of voluntary sector workers.

The call, which is for initial expressions of interest, follows London Funders’ report* titled “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.

The report reveals that community-facing workers who directly interact with users, such as youth counsellors and advice workers, are experiencing increased pressure and demand, leading to concerns about their resilience.

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, the City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, 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.”

City Bridge Trust is the funding arm of the City of London Corporation’s charity, Bridge House Estates. It is London’s biggest independent grant giver, making grants of £20 million a year to tackle disadvantage across the capital.

The Trust has awarded around 8,000 grants totalling over £400 million since it first began in 1995. It helps achieve the City Corporation’s aim of changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Londoners.

 *https://londonfunders.org.uk/sites/default/files/images/Resilience%20-%20role%20of%20funders.pdf

 ENDS

Media Enquiries

Kristina Drake

Media Officer, City of London Corporation

Kristina.Drake@cityoflondon.gov.uk

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Notes to editors

About the City of London Corporation:

The City of London Corporation is the governing body of the Square Mile dedicated to a vibrant and thriving City, supporting a diverse and sustainable London within a globally-successful UK.

www.cityoflondon.gov.uk 

About City Bridge Trust

City Bridge Trust is the funding arm of Bridge House Estates, a Registered Charity, with its primary aim the maintenance and support of five Thames bridges: Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Southwark, Blackfriars and the Millennium footbridge.

City Bridge Trust was established in 1995 to make use of funds surplus to bridge requirements and provides grants totalling around £20m per year towards charitable activity benefitting Greater London. The City of London Corporation is the sole trustee of the Bridge House Estates.