Great Yarmouth Heritage Linkworker Wins Heritage Social Prescribing Award 2024
The Historic England-funded social prescribing pilot project Heritage Linkworker – Heritage for Wellbeing, delivered by the Restoration Trust in Great Yarmouth and Waveney, won the first-ever Award for Best Heritage Social Prescribing Project at the International Social Prescribing Conference Awards ceremony on 19 June 2024.
Success for an innovative project
Heritage Linkworker was recognised as an innovative project, which successfully established a local social prescribing pathway for referring people in need to heritage activities beneficial for their mental and physical health.
The project addresses the barriers that prevent people on low income and with poor health from enjoying local heritage. Collaborating with local health and heritage services, the Heritage Linkworker connects local people who are referred to social prescribing services with heritage activities and organisations in Great Yarmouth and Waveney, including within the Heritage Action Zones in Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.
The Restoration Trust also worked with various local partners, places and artists including DIAL, The Grit in Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth Library, Pavilion Theatre Gorleston, Under Open Sky and many others.
Heritage Linkworker is largely funded by Historic England, with extra support from Adnams Community Trust, Norfolk Community Foundation Mental Health Fund, the Fuller Fund and Barchester Healthcare.
The project team arranged fortnightly groups in Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and Lowestoft where people pursued their interests in local history, make creative responses in art, photography and writing and enjoy new friendships.
The benefits of Heritage Linkworker
The project has had a profound effect on its participants, who were keen to share their experience with the service.
Evaluation of the Heritage Linkworker by Heidi Fisher of Make an Impact CIC shows that there have been definite benefits for both participants and local heritage and health organisations as a result of the project:
- 60% of participants had increased mental health (WEMWBS) scores, with an average increase of 8.3 points.
- 26% of participants have reduced their usage of health services, giving a net annual reduction of 114 appointments/contacts with health services.
- 28% of participants have reduced their medication usage.
- 33% of participants were more physically active.
- 83% of participants met new friends through the project.
- 67% of participants socialised with someone they met on the project.
- 92% having at least one person they could discuss personal matters with.
In addition to the benefits to the participants, the Heritage Linkworker project helped to raise the profile of heritage in social prescribing and make the case for the wellbeing benefits of engagement with heritage.
It also helped to develop fruitful relationships and partnerships between the heritage, VCFSE and the health sector.
The success of the project has also helped the Restoration Trust and the participant group to secure a small amount of funding to support the group to become a self-sustaining voluntary-led community group.
Finally, the learnings from this pilot will create the foundations of guidance on heritage and social prescribing for social prescribers and heritage practitioners.
Between November 2022 and May 2024, the project team helped more than 50 local people dealing with a variety of health problems, such as depression, anxiety, isolation and decreased mobility.
When my wife died, it left me very alone. I have no family or friends in the area and my grief crushed me into a lonely black hole. Heritage for Wellbeing quickly became my ladder to the light. I could not wish for a more welcoming group of people, who are not just friends, but have become like a family. They make learning about and exploring local heritage so enjoyable.
A new award
The Award for the Best Heritage Social Prescribing Project was a new category in the 2024 Social Prescribing Awards, hosted by the Social Prescribing Network and the National Academy for Social Prescribing.
The Awards recognise and celebrate the wealth of innovative social prescribing projects and schemes running throughout the UK and internationally.
The winners were announced at the 5th International Social Prescribing Conference at the University of Westminster on 19 June 2024.
The other three shortlisted projects for the Heritage Social Prescribing Awards were:
- Archaeology on Prescription (delivered by York Archaeology)
- Delapre Wellbeing (delivered by Delapre Abbey Preservation Trust)
- Kirkham Heritage, Health and Wellbeing Programme, delivered by the Phoenix Rising Partnership, led by Sue Flowers (Green Close) and Helen Shearn for the Kirkham Futures High Street Heritage Action Zone.
