A HIGHLY acclaimed Downpatrick-based charity has secured a significant financial boost from the Department of Justice.
The Life Change, Changes Lives organisation — based in Market Street — has secured a slice of a near £2m funding cake made available under the government department’s assets recovery scheme.
Over £5m has been distributed to organisations across the province since the scheme’s launch in 2012, with the Downpatrick charity aiming to use its £144,000 three-year funding package to provide its clients with basic food hygiene training, alongside cooking participation and demonstration skills.
The charity helps and supports people suffering with a range of mental health issues and addiction problems, offering professional and confidential counselling, mental health and addiction support and suicide intervention services.
It also works to help minimise social isolation, alongside encouraging wellness and recovery and family support.
Since its launch, Life Change Changes Lives has provided opportunities for people with a variety of problems to engage in constructive activities, including giving new life to old furniture through the very successful Pop Up Art initiative.
The money secured under the assets recovery scheme, which is managed by the Policing and Community Safety Partnership, will finance the charity’s No Lost Cause project.
Charity officials say the project is designed to provide an “intergenerational diversionary and therapeutic community programme” which aims to encourage disadvantaged and disengaged people to find their potential and build upon it, using activities, counselling, advocacy, training and support.
A logo is being used to publicise the project inspired by the ‘Not Waving but Drowning’ poem by Stevie Smyth which is often told in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It gives an account of a drowned man whose distressed thrashing in the water was mistaken for waving.
Charity officials say the No Lost Cause initiative is designed to complement the highly successful Pop Up Art project which is funded by the Big Lottery until this October.
Over the life of the No Lost Cause project, charity officials will strive to reduce crime through diverting people away from substance abuse and associated links to criminal activity.
Life Change, Changes Lives officials have confirmed that the new project also aims to reduce reoffending by providing training and skills development activities and counselling to deal with substance and relationship/family issues and provide support to improve the self-esteem of participants to help them re-engage with family and communities.
They hope that through the basic food hygiene training, cooking participation and demonstration project that it will help parents revive cooking healthy, affordable family meals, to be eaten together at the kitchen table, helping achieve interaction and involvement in young people’s lives
Ailish Teague, who helped establish the Downpatrick charity with her husband Manus, is delighted with the Department of Justice funding.
She said competition to secure the money for the next three years was competitive, with groups in each of the province’s 11 councils eligible to apply.
“The application was made through the Policing and Community Safety Partnership and the asset recovery is a brilliant resource, with money taken from criminals invested back into community projects,” said Ailish.
“We can use this money for the programmes we deliver, working closely with people who have a range of addictions.
“Our clients are also delighted that we have secured this funding which will enable is to deliver an NVQ Level One in hospitality services from our Market Street base with the food hygiene aspect of the course designed to give people a taste of employment.”
While delighted to have secured funding under the Department of Justice scheme, charity officials are conscious that their Lottery funding ends this October.
Mrs Teague says officials have met with Lottery representatives and has suggested that the chances of having their funding extended are “zero to nil”.
She added: “It will be difficult to secure more Lottery funding which could leave us with no money to finance our core costs including rent and other overheads. However, we will continue to battle to secure government funding.”