The Health Lottery is an independent UK lottery, which is helping to make a real difference to thousands of people across Great Britain.
The organisation manages 12 society lotteries, each representing a different geographical region of Great Britain. These lotteries are operated on a monthly rotation to ensure every region gets a share of the pot. When it comes to lottery good causes in the UK, there are a myriad of initiatives that need support. The proceeds raised from these 12 society lotteries, however, are used for one specific good cause – to address health inequalities of people living in Great Britain.
Each of the five weekly lottery draws during August, plus this month’s Mega Raffle draw, are being run on behalf of Health Lottery South East which was established to raise funds for community-driven initiatives that help uplift and empower people of all ages. To date Health Lottery South East has raised over £10m through The Health Lottery. This money has been used to fund 265 local grassroots projects and health charities.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the local groups and projects that have been funded and how they are making a difference in their communities to combat health inequalities. But first, let’s have a closer look at health inequities in Great Britain and what that means.
Understanding health inequities
The World Health Organisation defines health inequalities as “differences in health status or in the distribution of health determinants between different population groups. For example, differences in mobility between elderly people and younger populations or differences in mortality rates between people from different social classes.”
Health inequalities exist across different segments of the UK based on socio-economic factors and personal characteristics like ethnicity, age and sex. Statistics from 2017 showed that there is a nine-year gap in male life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas of England, and a seven-year gap for females.
By supporting The Health Lottery, your charitable donations will be helping to reduce this gap and give everyone the same opportunities to lead a healthy life, no matter where they live or who they are.
How Health Lottery South East is giving back to the community
Health Lottery South East is giving back to the community by raising funds to local projects and initiatives that aspire to reduce health inequalities. Working closely with their charity partner, People’s Health Trust, they have supported over 250 projects to date.
Those receiving grants from the Trust aim to reduce health inequalities by giving more people access to helpful resources and creating better places to grow, live, work and age. Below are some of the recent projects funded through money raised by Health Lottery South East.
- Med3 Music is one of Portsmouth’s most prominent health charities when it comes to aiding people experiencing enduring mental health problems and social isolation. Using music, the group aims to aid recovery, improve members’ physical and emotional wellbeing and help build self-esteem and motivation. People’s Health Trust has recently donated £10,943 of the monies raised through The Health Lottery to Med3 Music to support their good work in the community.
- Bedford Creative Arts was awarded £21,173 to produce an intergenerational documentary film, which aims to capture what life is like in the Bedford community. The short film tells a story about a year in the life of two groups of residents from two streets in Bedford. The project enabled the residents to work together through active citizenship and improve their community by gaining a greater understanding and openness.
- Exploring Senses CIC were awarded £28,152 to continue an existing project that provides a weekly ‘maker space’ session for young people aged from eight to 19 years in the Queen’s Park area of Brighton. The weekly sessions offer training and access to cutting-edge technology and arts equipment and enable young people to make friends while learning new skills.
Your opportunity to give back
To date, over £100 million has been raised through The Health Lottery’s 12 regional societies. With your support, this figure will continue to grow. Playing The Health Lottery means you can be part of a good cause by supporting vital health charities in your community. Health Lottery South East has its draws on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday throughout August. At the end of the month, there is an opportunity to win a prize of £250k in the new monthly mega raffle.
Health Games offers another opportunity to give back. Although this online casino does not form part of the lottery scheme operated by the Health Lottery on behalf of 12 society lotteries, it’s also committed to supporting grassroots UK charities, with a portion of the profit dedicated to tackling health inequalities across the UK.
