Making it Happen finalist at RSPH Health & Wellbeing Awards 2024

Established in 2007, the RSPH Health & Wellbeing Awards is the UK’s premier awards scheme for promoting health and wellbeing. The Awards recognise and celebrate a wide range of activities, policies and strategies that empower communities and individuals, improve the population’s health and address the wider social determinants of health, with awards focused on a wide range of public health projects and programmes.

To be shortlisted for this award is a fantastic honour, recognising not only the work of our team of Community Development Workers, but also the projects we’ve worked with to date. Since the programme began in October 2019, Making it Happen has awarded more than 300 grants to community projects across East Sussex, focusing on supporting communities to realise their ideas for what they want to see develop in their area. The programme has also supported ongoing learning, helping to build connections between statutory, public health, and VCSE bodies, and community representatives, while providing a platform for local residents to improve their confidence in taking a lead in their communities. Being named as a finalist demonstrates the key value of listening and responding to communities to foster collaboration in community development and public health.