Email: info@makeithappenbirkenhead.co.uk | Phone: 0151 306 4840 | 07458 302051 | Address: 72-74 Market St, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 5BT
Economy for
Healthier Lives
Here at Make It Happen we’ve been very pleased to be involved during the Economy for Healthier lives project, which gave funding via The Health Foundation to various projects across the country. During the last three years different approaches have been taken in delivering healthy economic impacts for communities in Liverpool City Region, Barnsley, Glasgow, Salford, Leeds and Havant. They have looked at the different ways health and the economy are linked, and how to harness that relationship to influence government policy and ensure that health and well-being is at the centre of the new Get Britain Working Again strategy.
In each location project teams began by listening to their communities to form their approach, with some going into deep dive relationships with a small number of anchor organisations, and others taking a broader approach across a wider range of employers as Liverpool did. Shared data in Liverpool had a big impact, allowing more targeted interventions to be made for people in line with their needs and aspirations.
In the LCR we have supported the work on pathways into employment and volunteering for different demographics in our community. Most notably we shared the learning gained from co-producing a series of training sessions with Be Well Learning and Wirral Change. These focused on health and wellbeing in the workplace, supporting individuals on their health journeys to help them stay in or gain employment. Mental Health First Aid was one such topic, aiming to help the resilience of volunteers and employees by providing the tools and shared experience of how to use them to the benefit of each other's mental health.
“Good health has social and economic value for individuals, society and the economy. It is an enabler of the prosperous and flourishing societies that governments strive to achieve. People’s health relies not only on health care, but also on their economic circumstances – income, wealth, whether they have a job, and the type of work they do.” The Health Foundation
This project enabled us to further demonstrate the benefits of working with an Asset Based Community Development model by creating bespoke training for different groups and encouraging cooperation and collaboration across different organisations with common goals. Jobs need to suit the individual, but so does the training they need to get a job done!
We are grateful that more broadly the Economy for Healthier Lives programme has highlighted the important role that stakeholders outside formal Health and Employment agencies, such as ourselves and other CVFSEs, have to play in making systemic shifts to address health inequalities through economic development. The final event hosted at the Royal Society of Arts in London was a wonderful forum for each project to share not just their progress but also their next steps. It is important this work goes on, and it was wonderful to hear the different ways the projects will continue to grow and deliver new ways of supporting health through the economy and vice versa.
