The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity has provided £1.13 million of charitable services to support the wellbeing of the construction industry.
2019 was an exciting but challenging year for the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity and one which saw a 56% increase in demand for their charitable services through their 24/7 Construction Industry Helpline. The number of construction families needing wellbeing and financial support rose to 2616 with a total of £703,641 of charitable giving to support them.
Mental health continues to feature heavily and as a founder member of the industry’s ‘Building Mental Health’ programme, the charity has been at the forefront of driving momentum to ensure a better mental health culture within the industry. To support this, £411,962 has been spent on the charity’s Education and Training programme with a project managed on behalf of the CITB training 300 Mental Health First Aid Instructors, who in turn have trained over 3,000 mental health first aiders to provide ‘boots on the ground’ support for our construction workforce.
Just over £21,000 has been invested in innovation, specifically on the Construction Industry Helpline App, which provides vital information, advice and guidance on a variety of wellbeing issues. In response to industry demand, the app is also being developed to meet the needs of companies with major sites and joint venture projects who want to provide additional site-specific real-time information such as details on health and safety briefings and site inductions.
Bill Hill, chief executive officer of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity, said: “We are working tirelessly to ensure that our construction workers and their families have access to the help they need. Our helpline cards have now been distributed to almost 600,000 of our workforce, and our app has been downloaded over 20,000 times.
“We will continue to deliver pro-active interventions to ensure that situations do not reach a life critical stage and our mission is to ensure that no worker feels alone in a crisis. To support our helpline, we have recently introduced professional caseworkers who ensure that applicants receive all the possible support available to them, both from us and other organisations. This means that the charity is spending less per case, whilst delivering a more holistic and higher quality service.”
Bill continued: “We’ve also recently extended our mental health training to offer an increased variety of construction focussed mental health training, including our ‘lunch and learn’ mental health sessions, right through to the MHFA England two-day training courses. Any organisation that becomes a Company Supporter by committing to an annual donation also receives fantastic discounts too.”
This year also sees the launch of two physical challenges: a 210-mile bike ride from Leitrim to Killarney in Ireland and a 48-hour Four Peaks Challenge starting in Scotland and ending in Ireland. So, if anyone is looking to get fit this year with one of the best team building challenges around, this is for you!”
To access the helpline’s team of experts, call the Construction Industry Helpline on 0345 605 1956 or visit www.constructionindustryhelpline.com.
All of the information regarding the charity’s helpline services, mental health training, Company Supporters programme and Physical challenges can be found on their website at www.lighthouseclub.org.
