Resident-led health and wellbeing enterprises for rural communities

One of the final events hosted by 3 Together before completing their Big Local journey in April 2025 brought together seven local groups who had received a total of £17,000 in grants. The event offered a chance for them to share their stories, celebrate their achievements, and inspire one another. Ryan Herman shares his highlights from the event.

3 Together spans the former mining villages of Easington Lane, Hetton and Moorsley, all of which nestle just inside the boundary of Sunderland City Council.

Even though the villages are geographical neighbours, each one has its own identity and its own history. It can be easy for people living in Easington Lane to miss out on a relevant project happening in Moorsley or Hetton, and vice versa.

“I often think this is what residents miss out on,” says 3 Together worker Emma Crow. ​“They may go to one group a week, but they don’t know about all these other great free programmes available nearby.” 

The venue for the event is the Easington Lane Community Access Point (ELCAP), an independent community hub founded in 2001.

Representatives of the seven groups deliver short presentations about the impact of their projects – including promoting intergenerational activities, a women and girls’ cricket club, and an environmental education programme for local schools. 

They each speak with passion and enthusiasm, but there’s one presentation in particular that reaches everyone on an emotional level. 

Hetton Buddies is a club for children with additional needs that has also become an essential network for their mothers. Claire Burt is one of the club’s committee members and speaks about how Hetton Buddies has provided an opportunity for children to flourish, gain confidence and, perhaps most importantly, make friends.

She then invites Ann Saunders, a mother whose son regularly attends Hetton Buddies, to share her experiences. She talks about trying to ​“keep him as normal as possible, but what is normal? This is his normal. And he said to me ​‘I really like it here because I can be myself’.”

Sam explains that joining the group has sparked a profound and positive change for her son, but the whole room can sense the positive effect it has had on her life as well.

Hetton Buddies is just one of the many projects supported by 3 Together where voluntary groups are making a genuine difference to people’s physical or mental wellbeing. 

Such projects can also have a positive impact on the NHS, in terms of social prescribing, as GPs can offer social opportunities as part of the solution for medical challenges. This is particularly significant in an area like 3 Together, where health outcomes and life expectancy rates rank among the worst in the country. 

As partnership member and former chair Shaun Newton explains, ​“The Hetton ward has a high proportion of pensioners, a high proportion of no car households, and a high proportion of single pensioner households. Put those three together and you have isolation.” 

Two of the most successful health and wellbeing projects are at opposite ends of the scale, in terms of the funding they received. 

“Over the first five years of the Big Local programme, we committed £135,000 to ELCAP, to help achieve their aim of providing affordable community transport, reducing social isolation and tackling loneliness,” says 3 Together Project Officer, David Carnaffan. 

They now have six minibuses, three of which are wheelchair accessible. They also run five ​‘shopping buses’ every week, initially funded through 3 Together, providing a door-to-door service to residents. 

“It’s much more than a bus service,” adds Shaun, who is also the CEO of ELCAP. ​“Imagine going on your first trip and you sit next to somebody on the bus, you get chatting. You see them again the following week, and the week after that. You exchange numbers and call each other. Friendships develop. 

“You see that happening here, without question. We’ve got one woman who only goes out twice a week, but both times it’s because of the bus service. It means she still has independence. 

“And the programme is self-sustaining through grants, so it will continue long after Big Local.” 

By contrast, it took just £1,000 to get a kids mental health programme off the ground. 

Carol Grimes has been with the NHS for over 30 years, first as a nurse for people with learning disabilities and then as a psychological therapist. Carol’s colleague Katy also works for the NHS, managing a team of peer workers in mental health services. 

Together, Carol and Katy recognised a growing problem that has exploded in the wake of the pandemic. 

“We realised there’s a lot of mental health services working with younger people, mainly teenagers, but they were very responsive. The services would become involved once somebody was at a crisis point,” Carol shares. 

“But there weren’t many services doing any preventative work in helping children to understand that emotions are okay. They’re completely normal. So, we set up Heads Up, to work with younger children in primary schools to help them understand difficult emotions.” 

3 Together provided the initial funding to get Heads Up started. 

“It came about by accident,” Carol explains. ​“My husband also runs a community interest company. He had a meeting with Kevin Clark (a former Project Officer at 3 Together) where he mentioned Heads Up and it piqued Kevin’s interest. 

“We properly started Heads Up in 2017 because 3 Together had that trust and faith in us that allowed us to produce some books and create toys. We’ve been to schools across the area and beyond. That initial £1,000 also demonstrated to other funders and providers that we were a viable option.” 

Although 3 Together won’t continue beyond the Big Local programme, the hope is that other groups and organisations can learn from their experiences. 

At the end of 2024, Shaun was appointed as trustee for the Voluntary Organisations Network North East (VONNE).

“Using the skills that we’ve gained from Big Local, I can escalate them on a regional basis, share advice and support, whether it’s about isolation, activities, intergenerational working,” he says. 

“Nearly a third of the wards across Sunderland City Council are ​‘left behind’* communities. We hope we can teach people what we’ve learned through the Big Local programme and the importance of collaboration. 

“You’ve got to work in partnership, whether it’s within a Big Local, across a city through a council, or nationally through parliamentary groups. There’s always so much more to learn.”