The Restoration Trust (RT) is delighted to have been awarded a grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to enable us to build a sustainable future, supporting this innovative charity to continue to provide opportunities for people with mental health challenges to access and benefit from the richness of their local heritage.
Today, The Restoration Trust is announcing a £99,830.00 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to devise a strategy and forward plan to sustain us through the next decade. This grant gives us the time and space to take stock and plan giving us the best platform from which to continue to co-create high-quality heritage experiences that make a real and lasting difference to people’s lives.
The RT is dedicated to enabling the heritage sector to engage with people who live with serious mental health issues. As such, we are indispensable to the heritage ecosystem. In 2014 the Restoration Trust began the innovative process of opening up the UK’s heritage to those with mental health challenges, and in the process helping them to find greater wellbeing. The organisation has achieved remarkable success in its ten-year life to date as evidenced in the evaluation of our projects contained on our website. However the RT is itself at risk with the recent retirement of its founder-Director which is why we need this support to prepare a detailed plan for the next ten years. Without this funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we would be unable to achieve this level of forward planning and the heritage eco-system might lose one of its key components.
RT connects heritage supply with mental health demand. We find heritage partners who collaborate with mental health providers and people with lived experience to create projects that access heritage and associated experts in a creative, enjoyable and supportive way. The focus is not directly on the participants’ mental ill health but through in-depth engagement with cultural and natural heritage participants find renewed inner strength. This project will enable the RT to continue its work; it will support heritage providers to increase access, inclusion and participation to people with whom they do not normally engage; the projects themselves help to protect the environment in many different ways; and a key focus will be on the sustainability of the RT itself.
Glenys Watt, Chair of the Restoration Trust said: “We are delighted to have received this grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players our organisation will be supported to continue its innovative work linking heritage providers with people with mental health challenges. Many people will benefit from this in future years.”
About Restoration Trust
The Restoration Trust (RT) has established itself as the leader in promoting inclusivity, engaging those with mental health issues in the heritage sector over the past decade. Through our pioneering ‘Culture Therapy™’ programme with proven benefits, RT has raised vital awareness while profoundly impacting participants’ lives and influencing heritage professionals across East Anglia and beyond.
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
As the largest dedicated funder of the UK’s heritage, The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future as set out in our strategic plan, Heritage 2033.
Over the next ten years, we aim to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to bring about benefits for people, places and the natural environment.
We help protect, transform and share the things from the past that people care about, from popular museums and historic places, our natural environment and fragile species, to the languages and cultural traditions that celebrate who we are.
We are passionate about heritage and committed to driving innovation and collaboration to make a positive difference to people’s lives today, while leaving a lasting legacy for future generations to enjoy.
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund www.heritagefund.org.uk
Further information
For further information, images and interviews please contact Darren France at the Restoration Trust on [email protected] mobile: 07905517906.
