Havering Council has awarded more than £73,000 to local community groups to help improve the health and wellbeing of local residents.
The Community Chest has awarded grants to small-to-medium-sized charities, voluntary, faith groups and social enterprises supporting their members to overcome health inequalities.
The funding is provided by the Havering Place-based Partnership, which includes the NHS.
Applications for funding were reviewed by a panel of health, local authority and Healthwatch partners and groups were allowed to apply for up to £10,000 in funding.
The grants will benefit a range of organisations that support local residents by tackling inequalities including the cost of living, providing counselling support and half-term holiday programmes, among others.
Councillor Gillian Ford, Cabinet Member for Adults and Wellbeing, said:
“There are so many different challenges that some of our residents face, including essential support for day-to-day living.
"These grants are an opportunity for local groups to provide the services that our communities need.
"There are a range of services that will benefit the health and wellbeing of residents from providing food and a warm places to providing babywear for parents in need.”
Luke Burton, Director of the Havering Place Based Partnership said:
“The Community Chest programme was a great success last year. We supported thousands of local people to improve their wellbeing, across a range of different activities and groups.
“The Community and Voluntary sector in Havering is vibrant and passionate about the work that they do, and the bids that we received this year really reflected that.
“I’m proud to say that we were able to fund a further 14 groups this year with exciting initiatives.
“The Havering Partnership continues to work with, and invest in the community and voluntary sector in Havering, with the aim of improving the wellbeing of local people.”