As part of the release of the Nesta and Osca publication, Good and bad help. How purpose and confidence transforms lives we launched the Good Help Award to discover more examples of ‘good help’ practices that are already happening across the UK. The Good Help Award celebrated organisations or teams that demonstrated how they were helping people transform their lives by helping them develop their sense of purpose and confidence to take action

We made three awards available - one £15,000 winner, and two £5,000 runners up.

We received an overwhelming response from over 300 applicants working across multiple sectors, including health, social care, education, justice and employment. We selected 19 finalists who we believe represented some of the best examples of how good help can be offered.

We invited the 19 finalists to a full day exploration event at Nesta in July 2018. We spent the day learning about the different - but very complementary - ways these pioneering organisations are helping people develop purpose and confidence to take action, and how they are improving their lives.

Many of the applicants were addressing some of the most important social issues we face today, such as addiction, managing chronic health conditions, difficulties at school, social isolation, unemployment and bereavement. Despite often working in extremely tough conditions, they have transformed thousands of lives, demonstrating how our public services can and should be improved.

In September 2019 we announced the winners of the award -

Blue Marble Training, London, part of the Shoreditch Trust, was selected as the overall winner. The judges were inspired to hear how they support young people facing many different challenges to be independent and to find work that is meaningful to them. They felt they demonstrated a real sense of community and peer support, whilst also providing pastoral support that is very much tailored to the individual’s needs, creating opportunities to help them improve their health and wellbeing. They build this support around a training programme that brings young people into a real, working kitchen to build cooking skills whilst being mentored by chefs to build their personal development. As the overall winner, they receive £15,000.

NHS Community Pain Service / Pain Clinic Plus, was selected as a joint runner up. This innovative approach combines clinical services with peer mentoring from 'expert patients' and peer support, including a volunteer-led wellbeing choir. Patients are encouraged to recognise their own strengths, feel hopeful and develop their confidence and self-efficacy. Providing a 'lifeline' for many, this inspires their belief that life can be lived well, despite pain. As a joint runner up, they receive £5,000.

The Membership team at Off the Record, Bristol, was selected as our other joint runner up. This project works with young people to help them develop their own strategies to address mental health issues, including through peer support and wellbeing activities. Young people trained as ‘peer navigators’ offer strength-based conversations, supporting peers to make informed choices, access and build on their resources; develop self-care plans and make decisions about how they care for their own mental health. As a joint runner up, they also receive £5,000.

On one matter, the judges were unanimous; that each and every one of the finalists deserved to be a winner. We were delighted to confirm that they would each receive £1,000.