The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity has provided £1.13m of charitable services to support the wellbeing of the construction industry
The charity saw a 56 per cent increase in demand for its charitable services in 2019, through its 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 the 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, CEO 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.”
To support the helpline, Lighthouse has recently introduced professional caseworkers who ensure that applicants receive all the possible support available to them.This means that the charity is spending less per case whilst delivering a more holistic and higher quality service
In 2020, two physical challenges have been introduced: a 210-mile bike ride from Leitrim to Killarney in Ireland and an epic 48-hour Four Peaks Challenge starting in Scotland and ending in Ireland.
