Here at Inclusion Barnet, one of our main priorities is to ensure that the communities we serve in Barnet have access to support when they need it. As part of this work, we are pleased to announce that we have been awarded £480 000 by the Big Lottery Fund to deliver our new service, Touchpoint.
Touchpoint is a preventative service; it aims to provide person-centred support to people who struggle to gain access to support from existing services. We will do this by working with people to ensure they get the right support for their needs.
This project will be a listening and connecting service aimed at people who experience physical and/or learning disabilities, mental health issues or long-term conditions; ensuring they are linked to the right services at the right time. A peer support programme will ensure that people have someone to talk to with a view to reducing isolation and improving wellbeing through buddying and volunteer support as well.
Inclusion Barnet is run by disabled people and Touchpoint will be no different. We believe that lived experience of disability gives disabled people a unique understanding of how society can be made more equal and inclusive. We use this experience to design projects that achieve equality, and we will be working to achieve greater equality of access to service provision in Barnet.