More than 130,000 people across the East of England are set to feel the health benefits of a whopping £3.9million investment to improve well-being and encourage healthier lifestyles in schools, homes, workplaces and communities throughout the region.

The grant of £3,900,019 comes from the Big Lottery Fund’s Well-being programme, which focuses on improving mental health, healthy eating and physical activity across England. The grant is one of fourteen awards worth over £126 million being announced today.

Well-being in the East: Delivering a Healthy Active Future is a portfolio of projects that will improve mental health by focusing on prevention, encourage healthier eating by helping people to make better choices and change their lifestyles and increase levels of physical activity among people of all ages.

Sara Betsworth, Big Lottery Fund Head of Eastern region, said: “Growing obesity levels and the rising prevalence of depression, stress and anxiety in today’s society means that keeping fit and living healthy lifestyles has become more and more important.

“Considering not even one quarter of the adult population in the East of England consumes five or more portions of fruit and vegetables per day, and about 11% of adults participate in the recommended levels of physical activity, this investment will hopefully go a long way in helping people to address health issues and be proactive in improving their lifestyles.

“The Big Lottery Fund has a long tradition of supporting such projects and we are so pleased to be able to contribute further.”

The portfolio will be led by CSIP Eastern, one of eight regional development centres of the Care Services Improvement Partnership working with a steering group of the key regional partners and stakeholders in the area of public health, including the regional public health team, regional physical activity forum (Sport England East) and COVER (Community and Voluntary Forum for the East of England). CSIP Eastern is hosted in the region by the North Essex Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

The portfolio consists of 25 projects, one of which will train community-based organisations to provide weight management services. The Norfolk Obesity Group project will result in 60 to 90 qualified people to deliver weight management training programmes in 60 locations throughout Norfolk.

Another significant project is the Saracen’s Foundation project, who will tackle physical inactivity and obesity by working in partnerships with schools and ‘outside school clubs’. The project will stimulate an increase in the quantity and quality of sport, physical activity and health promotion activities within local primary schools.

Susannah Rix, Programme Director at CSIP Eastern, said: “As you can imagine, the partners involved in developing this regional portfolio are very excited by this news today.

“As the key agencies responsible for the main strategies for healthy eating, physical activity and mental well-being in the East of England, it is our belief that the key to improving well-being is rooted in the everyday and the ordinary.

“We believe that to make a real difference to the well-being of everyone in the region we need to engage with people from all walks of life. This includes school children, families, commuters, people in their workplaces, television and the media, older people and others at risk of isolation where they live.

“This exciting opportunity also means that we can further develop and share our knowledge about what really works for everyone.”

Well-being is part of the Big Lottery Fund’s £2.6bn UK-wide portfolio of programmes which are running till 2009. Regularly updated information on the Big Lottery Fund’s new programmes is available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/publications.htm

Further information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102 030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

• The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004.
• On 1 December 2006 the Big Lottery Fund was officially established by Parliament and at the same time assumed the residual responsibilities of the dissolved National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund) the New Opportunities Fund, and the Millennium Commission. The Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £19.5 billion has now been raised and more than 250,000 grants given out to the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.