News
Nesta announces Good Help Award winners
The progressive innovation think-tank Nesta has announced the winners of its inaugural Good Help Award. Organised in partnership with social impact lab Osca, the competition “recognises organisations and projects that are helping people confidently take action to achieve their personal goals”, and received over 300 applications from a wide array of social enterprises that are “addressing some of the most important social issues we face today, such as addiction, managing chronic health conditions, difficulties at school, social isolation, unemployment and bereavement”.
The entrants were eventually whittled down to 19 finalists, all of whom attended a full-day exploration event back in June, at which their presentations were assessed against the seven characteristics of good help identified in Nesta’s recent “Good and bad help” report.
The overall winner was Blue Marble Training (part of the Shoreditch Trust), securing a prize of £15,000. The judges “felt they demonstrated a real sense of community and peer support, whilst also providing pastoral support that is very much tailored to the individual’s needs, creating opportunities to help them improve their health and wellbeing.”
Joint runners-up, each landing a prize of £5,000, were NHS Community Pain Service / Pain Clinic Plus (which “combines clinical services with peer mentoring from ‘expert patients’ and peer support, including a volunteer-led wellbeing choir” to encourage clients to live full lives in spite of chronic pain) and Bristol’s Off The Record (which “works with young people to help them develop their own strategies to address mental health issues, including through peer support and wellbeing activities”).
No one went home empty-handed, however, with Nesta gifting every finalist with £1,000. Keep an eye on Nesta’s website over the coming days, where they’ll be publishing case studies of all the finalists.