Social prescribing enables a GP, nurse or other healthcare professional to refer you to a specialist link worker to talk about the issues you are facing and find the right services to support you.

Link workers give people time, focusing on ‘what matters to me’ and taking a holistic approach to people’s health and wellbeing. They connect people to community groups and statutory services for practical and emotional support.

Social prescribing works for a wide range of people, including people:

• with one or more long-term conditions
• who need support with their mental health
• who are lonely or isolated
• who have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing, i.e. money and debt issues, domestic abuse, employment

The service helps you improve your health and wellbeing and to make positive life changes.

You can find out more about services available to support you by viewing the joy marketplace, which has lots of services listed with more being added weekly.  Click here to find out more: https://services.thejoyapp.com/

Community Chest is a grant programme which is running in Barking and Dagenham for its second year in 2024. It is used to fund small to medium charities, organisations, community groups and social enterprises (VCFSEs) to run services and activities to support the health and wellbeing of Barking and Dagenham Residents

The total value of the Community Chest in Barking and Dagenham is £90,000 – comprising of £45,000 from NHS Northeast London which is match funded by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

We want to support community groups to provide more activities and services to improve residents' health and wellbeing in response to health inequalities and population needs identified within Barking and Dagenham.  This grant will provide up to £5,000 for a community group to run a service, activity or an event supporting residents’ health and wellbeing.

Applications are accepted from any constituted voluntary, community or recreational group working within and for the residents of Barking & Dagenham. These funds will be directly re-awarded over February and March 2024, with selected grantees providing social prescribing activities as part of the Community Chest.

We are especially interested in supporting small groups, with annual incomes under £60,000 and groups working with and led by people with protected characteristics. These are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

Core criteria for the funding:

1. Equality, diversity and inclusion – supporting those who are left behind or not well provided for by the current offer

2. Capacity building – strengthening your organisation’s capability to deliver projects

3.  Existing Health Priorities – how your proposal supports and compliments the local health priorities in Barking & Dagenham

4. Evidence – showing the impact of your work and sharing your good work with others

Closing date for applications is Monday 8 January 2024 at 5pm

Community Chest Application Form 2023-2024 (DOCX, 89.36 KB)

Community Chest Application form 2023 – 2024 Practice (DOCX, 92.02 KB)

Community Chest FAQ’s – 2023 - 2024 (DOCX, 62.68 KB)

Community Chest Timeline for Grant Recipients 2023 to 2024 (DOCX, 30.5 KB)

Community Chest Report 2023 - 2024 (PDF, 7.51 MB)

Community Chest Festival 7 December 2023 – Unmet needs and joy presentation (PPTX, 15.98 MB)

Important dates:

• 1 or 8 February 2024 10.00-16.00: Participatory budgeting @ Barking Learning Centre (Confirmed date will be announced at Community Festival)

• March 2024: distribution of funds and start of funded activities

• July 2024: completion of activities and beginning of evaluation

For more information please contact communitychest@lbbd.gov.uk

Community Chest poster (PDF, 708.3 KB)

Joy Marketplace provides local health professionals, community and voluntary organisations access to an online directory of local non-clinical services and support available to help improve the health and wellbeing of local people across Barking and Dagenham

Part of the Joy App, Joy Marketplace

Part of the Joy App, Joy Marketplace is a social prescribing online tool that enables individuals to access local support such as exercise classes, community groups, local activities and counselling services.

Easy to access, health professionals, community and voluntary organisations can use Joy Marketplace to both raise awareness of their services and support they provide, alongside using it to refer or signpost local people to the appropriate support for their needs. The general public can also self-refer themselves direct using Joy Marketplace. 

Joy marketplace, is now available support social prescribing and promote community and voluntary sector services.

The marketplace provides a directory of services in Barking and Dagenham and both services and activities can be added to either signpost to a group/service or set up a direct referral pathway.

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham are keen that community organisations sign up to Joy to share their services directly with health professionals. Some of the benefits are:

• It’s free! There is no cost for using the Joy Marketplace to promote services to local communities and professionals like GPs and Social Prescribing Link Workers
• Quick and easy referrals, always containing the information needed to assess the referral and support the client
• Access to data to support funding bids and business cases

To be part of the marketplace please 

Sign up to Joy 

If you would prefer to organise a discussion, please contact socialprescribing@lbbd.gov.uk   

Please click for a how to guide