Ongo Communities: A year of growth, support, and success
Ongo Communities has supported over 1000 people in the last 12 months with employment, training and mental health support.
Their dedicated Skills and Personal Development team offers a wide range of support, including employment, training, mental health and financial support.
The services the team offer include supporting people to get online, tackling loneliness, safeguarding, supporting young people into apprenticeships, offering domestic abuse and supporting those facing homelessness, as well as the Ongo Talk mental health support.
Key achievements from the past 12 months:
- Offered mental health support to 354 individuals, including 209 tenants.
- Supported 717 individuals to increase their skills and their confidence to become ready to enter employment. This includes 357 tenants.
- Helped 229 clients to secure employment, which included 82 tenants.
- Provided training to 365 clients, which included 136 tenants.
- Offered 58 volunteer placements, including 19 placements for tenants.
We received external grants and funding to deliver these additional projects within the year:
- Fuelled grant: Secured £13,159 to deliver free school holiday activities with meals, benefiting approximately 100 young people at The Arc and Viking Centre.
- Air fryer project: Gained a £7,700 grant from North Lincolnshire Council to deliver workshops and provide air fryers to low-income families, benefiting 114 individuals.
- Multiply: Successfully completed the final year of a £150,000 three-year initiative aimed at enhancing numeracy skills among local residents, empowering them to apply these skills both at home and in the workplace.
- Positive activities grant: Received £2,300 to buy resources and food for youth sessions across our community buildings.
- Wellbeing project: Enrolled 123 customers in our stop smoking support, with 41 successfully quitting. The team were awarded an additional £100,000 to expand the project through to March 2026.
Jan Williams, Head of Opportunities said: “Over the years we’ve grown significantly, supporting people with mental health support, one to one counselling, coaching and a range of other opportunities.
“I’m honoured and feel very lucky to work with so many amazing people, who are passionate about helping others.”
Both The Arc and Viking Centre continue to deliver weekly activities and services, benefiting hundreds of customers of all ages each week. Our commitment to community wellbeing is our top priority, and we look forward to achieving even greater milestones in the coming year.
If you think you could benefit from support of guidance from the team, visit www.ongo.co.uk/supporting-you