Jewish Action for Mental Health and Neshomo are expanding their reach of community support thanks to new funding by the National Lottery.
Jewish Action for Mental Health (JAMH) and Neshomo are celebrating after been awarded £210,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund. Spread over three years, the award will help both Manchester mental health charities expand their mentoring, counselling, and community support to those whose mental health has been affected by the pandemic.
“This grant means that we can reduce our waiting lists of people who are so desperately in need of life-changing therapy and counselling and longer-term befriending and mentoring,” said JAMH trustee Jonny Wineberg. “It will also enable us to employ a youth worker to undertake more preventative work, reducing the need for more complex interventions. Our thanks go out to National Lottery players who have enabled us to make a big difference to people’s lives. “Over the last 2 years, our community has
definitely recognised that mental health support is vital. We hope that we can get more backing to build on what we have achieved as we have a waiting list for our counselling due to not having the funding for the numbers of people looking for support.”
With half of its clients aged under 25, JAMH has created a register of over 35 qualified therapists and counsellors registered with professional bodies. Partnered with Neshomo, both charities have provided over 500 free therapy sessions and group workshops since March 2020 in a collaborative effort to meet the needs of the most vulnerable members of the community.
Chair of Neshomo, David Marshall, said: “Our continued partnership enables those in mental distress in our community to get the help they need quickly and on an enduring basis. We are so grateful to the Community Fund for this support, which will help sustain and grow our work over the next three years.”
The charities aim to use the new funding to reach over 1,000 people across Manchester, Salford, Bury, Trafford and Stockport over the next three years. The new project is also run-in partnership with Keren, to provide practical support to girls aged between 12-24 from the orthodox Jewish community, with opportunities for volunteers to take on support roles with ongoing training and supervision.