Mansfield charity hopes to get people’s vote for People's Project awards

SHE UK, based on Byron Street, is one of five groups in the region in the running for a share of almost £250,000 of funding.

If successful, SHE UK – winner of the community initiative award at your Chad’s 2021 business excellence awards – will use the money to improve the lives of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, sexual violence and rape.

It hopes to be able to arrange weekly sessions for survivors to come together and “be empowered to take back control of their lives to reach their ambitions and goals”.

The sessions will consist of self-development courses, including helping survivors understand the effects of trauma, offer coping strategies, work on mindset and more, as well as a place to build social connections with other survivors, creating a safe space to build positive relationships and feel they “belong”.

The People’s Projects not only delivers vital grants to the heart of UK communities, but also raises awareness of the work of the 95 shortlisted community groups vying for votes.

In each region, three projects with the most public votes will receive grants of up to £70,000. The runners-up in each region will be offered up to £10,000 towards their project, bringing the total funding up for grabs for communities across the UK to over £4 million.

Voting opens on Monday, May 15, at 9am, at thepeoplesprojects.org.uk

Lisa Lenton, SHE UK chief executive, said: “The People’s Projects has given us an amazing opportunity to raise awareness and support for our work and, with your help, secure this additional much-needed funding.

“If we win, our project will make a real difference to our local community by offering survivors a place to progress on their healing journey.

“Often survivors of this horrific abuse suffer with low self-worth, anxiety, depression and carry a sense of shame – our work empowers survivors to replace that with confidence, self-belief and positivity for the future. We now need local people to get behind us, to show their support and vote.”

Voting closes on Friday, May 26, at noon.