Bodster CIC are asking Islanders to vote for them in the Aviva Community Fund.
They are hoping to win a grant of £5,000 to fund their work at Bodster CIC helping to improve the mental health of Islanders in need.
Jo and Giles Boddington say,
“Our Aviva dream is to deliver a project which will enable learners who feel isolated and dis-empowered, through interaction with our ponies on the ground to set themselves small targets to achieve and enable them to become successful and believe in their own self-worth.
“We have been approached by local community organisations such as NHS Isle of Wight to offer our service to more people in their care who have low self-esteem to help them develop their life skills, mental and physical health and gain employability skills.
“Such learners often do not have funds to access our service and so we are applying for a grant to cover staff costs in particular for such a project.”
Higher number of mental health issues
Jo and Giles go on to say,
“On the Island it is estimated from the Isle of Wight Mental Health Strategy 2014-2019 that 20.1% of the population suffer from living with a long term illness (often including mental health issues) compared with a National average of 16.9 %.
“It has been proven that meaningful activities helps improve peoples’ mental health. From the learners who have come for sessions we know that interacting with the ponies helps improve their mental health, partly because ponies do not judge and take you as you are.
“We have completed some work with a few learners with Mental Health issues such as bipolar and one such learner stated that Bodster was the only place where she did not hear voices and could enjoy listening to nature.”
Vote now
You’ll need to register to vote, but once you have you can vote up to ten times.
Find out more about Bodster CICV by visiting their Website
