Liverpool based mental health charity receives funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund

Liverpool based national mental health charity, Chasing the Stigma, creator of the UK’s leading mental health support signposting app, the Hub of Hope, is celebrating after receiving a significant amount of funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund distributed by the National Lottery Community Fund.

Chasing the Stigma, which launched four years ago, has received £50,000 from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund distributed by the National Lottery Community Fund to provide additional support for the mental health crisis brought about by the challenges of Covid-19. The funding will cover the charities core costs, including purchasing equipment, increasing staffing and ongoing marketing activity.

In addition, it will also allow the charity to deliver more training to organisations, businesses and individuals across the UK, which have committed to having thousands of members of staff trained as Ambassadors of Hope. These training sessions will ensure the Ambassadors of Hope know how to talk to those struggling with their mental health and more importantly, know where to send them for help. The Ambassador of Hope training has been set up to impact real organisational change by breaking down the stigma, so mental health is talked about and focused on every day.

The award-winning charity was set up by Liverpool comedian, Jake Mills following his own suicide attempt. Jake realised when talking through his own personal experience that many people didn’t know where to turn with their own mental health issues, so Jake and his team created the Hub of Hope – an app which brings together all of the mental health support available to someone in any given area from NHS support, national charities Mind and The Samaritans to voluntary, private and third sector services.

Since its launch, the Hub of Hope has directed over 150,000 people to life-changing and even life-saving help. The site has proved, particularly popular amongst men aged 25-54, who are often cited as being most likely to die by suicide. ¹

Jake commented: “Funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, will help us continue to do everything we want to do, including involving more services, offering more training and most importantly reaching more people, as we know access to the right support at the right time can make such a difference.

“People struggle to talk about mental health and shockingly the statistics reflect this. The number of suicides continues to rise, and Covid-19 is having a catastrophic effect on people across the UK, so now is the time to open dialogue and make sure people know what support resources are available. We want to say thank you to the Government for helping make this possible.”

Chasing the Stigma has also received additional funding of £16,800 from Nominet, the profit with a purpose company operating at the heart of the internet infrastructure, to further support its activity as a Nominet #RESET Mental Health Programme partner. The £68,800 received from Nominet to date has enabled Chasing the Stigma to update and relaunch Hub of Hope, and more recently enabled Hub of Hope to be hosted on external platforms, allowing more people to access the service.

The Hub of Hope can be accessed through the app, Chasing the Stigma website or www.hubofhope.co.uk  The site has a Need Help Now? button that links straight through to the Samaritans and Crisis text line.