EEAST Charity is making a difference

Over the past year, our East of England Ambulance Service Charity has made a real difference to our staff, volunteers and local communities providing £161,000 worth of funding.

Since the beginning of April 2022, the Charity has committed £161k to support projects, initiatives, services, and equipment across EEAST, supporting staff, volunteers, and our local communities.

Community support
Of this, one third of the funding has supported the lifesaving work of our volunteer Community First Responders, providing uniform, additional CFR kit and community AEDs. The CFR groups actively fundraise to support their local communities, using donations to positively influence and raise awareness of the work they do on behalf of EEAST.

Funding has also been used to provide the CFR PLUS app to CFRS. The app provides reference and reassurance for responders in their role along with essential resources to aid understanding.

They have also been able to purchase replacement pads for iPAD AEDs, which were originally placed in the community as part of a Trust initiative to improve response times to cardiac arrests in the hard-to-reach areas of our region. This funding has ensured that the devices remain fit for purpose and can continue to be used to support patients.

Caring for our staff
For our staff, the charity has been able to support the creation of numerous wellbeing gardens across the Trust. Local stations have created enriching outdoor spaces with planters, benches, gazebos and foliage, as well as refreshing tired break out rooms with plants, pictures and recreational items all to provide staff and volunteers with a more pleasant area for relaxation.

In collaboration with the Trust, the charity has provided all the drinks and snacks to stock the Wellbeing Wagons, which travel around the region supporting crews during times of increased pressure when they are waiting at hospitals.

Two gazebos have been purchased to support our staff networks. These branded items help to raise the profile of the Trust, build better relationships with our community, allow for health/service promotion, recruitment and increase visibility of the work of our organisation.

The charity has also supported a number of staff events including station open days, the staff award ceremony in partnership with the Trust and has provided Costa Coffee vouchers for those who have completed this year’s staff survey.

Boost to training
Two additional TRiM courses have been funded from an NHS Charities Together grant to help increase the number of trained TRiM Practitioners able to assist staff following possible exposure to trauma. This funding has supported 14 new foundation practitioners for the Essex region and 18 for Norfolk. Both include AOC practitioners. 

Working with NHS Charities Together
In addition, the NHS Charities Together projects awarded last financial year are fully underway. Both the projects are based around patient care. The first is our Unmet Needs pilot which underway and we have two full time Unmet Needs navigators in post helping to signpost patients who have additional non-clinical needs to access the support services they require.

The second project provided falls equipment for eighteen targeted CFR groups, to provide initial falls training and on-going annual re-certification training to volunteers. Furthermore, the funds will support ten new CFR roving cars, all fully equipped with falls and CFR response kit and fully trained falls volunteers. This will provide a mobile resource within communities to attend patients in a much wider geographic area. These valuable scheme help volunteers to provide support to patients in local communities who have fallen, enabling patients as much as possible to be remain in their own home, without the need to attend hospital. Additionally, falls trained volunteers are providing access for patients to local support services and care pathways, linking them to the right resources to limit future falls or possible injury.

The East of England Ambulance Service Charity operates for the benefit of staff, volunteers, and the local communities in the east of England. It relies solely on donations and fundraising activities from our incredible supporters, generosity from legacies and income opportunities from grant programmes to enable these workstreams to happen. To find out more about our charity please click here.

Published 14th December 2022