Member Article

Women set to 'feel good' with Coalfields cash

Feel Good CIC, which aims to improves the wellbeing of residents living across the North East, is launching a women-only initiative after securing almost £10,000 from the Coalfields Community Investment Fund (CCIP), delivered by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust.

Founded in 2012 by Gillian Fortune, Feel Good CIC provides courses and workshops to equip people with the techniques, tools and resources that have been designed to support the long-term social, physical and emotional wellbeing of residents.

With this funding, the Durham-based community enterprise will launch a new ‘Feel Good’ training and peer support group aimed at women hoping to improve their mental health and tackle challenges such as stress, anxiety and self-esteem.

The end goal is to help to make a positive difference in these communities by supporting participants to take responsibility for their personal wellbeing at home and in the work place. This will ultimately lead to them living a much better quality of life.

Founder Gillian Fortune, who has successfully taught thousands of people to tackle stress and be more resilient, comments: “Our number one goal is to empower people by giving them the tools to build up their confidence and become more resilient in all aspects of their lives.

“With this new funding we can bring women together in a safe and friendly environment to interact and learn from one another whilst also improving their mental health and wellbeing.

“The ‘Feel Good’ sessions are exactly what they say on the tin. We want women to implement our self-help techniques into their everyday lives, so they feel good about who they are. We are extremely grateful for the funding from the Coalfield Regeneration Trust as this allows us to continue delivering the positive work we are doing in our communities. This funding allows us to do this essential support work.”

Development Manager for the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Steve Abson, comments: “As our three main priorities for action focus on employment, skills and health and wellbeing, Feel Good CIC is delivering exactly what is needed in our communities.

“Organisations such as this act as lifelines as the services they offer have such a positive impact on local residents. However, more needs to be done before the potential of these community-led initiatives is fully realised, which is why we are calling on the reinstatement of funds and are calling on Government to provide a dedicated Coalfield Investment Fund to support the programmes that we deliver.”

The Coalfields Community Investment Programme supports organisations and programmes of activity that meet with three key criteria; to address skills, employment or health and wellbeing.

Established in 1999, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust is the only organisation dedicated to supporting former mining towns and villages.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nick Hill .