THE Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity has revealed it helped 2,264 families in crisis and delivered £1.287 million of charitable giving in 2020.
The figures were released in the charity’s 2020 Impact Report, in the wake of the pandemic and associated lockdowns.
For the first time, the report detailed the social value created by the charity which equates to £7.48 for every £1 of charitable spend.
The charity added that demand rose for its 24/7 helpline resources, while the number of complex cases needing ‘multiple’ interventions increased by 70%.
40% of calls handled by case workers mentioned mental health issues and 4% of callers mentioned an attempted suicide. 21% of cases were for issues directly related to the pandemic. The charity responded to requests for financial support with household bills, food deliveries and helping with debt.
Despite the challenges, case workers leveraged £564,000 by working with 3rd party sources before releasing charitable grants.
The report also details developments in the charity’s education and training programme. Due to restrictions on face to face training, all courses were adapted to be delivered online free of charge, with over 1,500 people attending courses ranging from coping with stress through to resilience and mindfulness. The success of a national project funded by the CITB delivered a further 41 mental health first aid instructors into the industry.
A free helpline number was launched during the year for the construction community in the Republic of Ireland and the charity has been working with the Construction Industry Federation to ensure colleagues in Ireland can access the same support as their UK counterparts.
Bill Hill, CEO of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity, said, “Our hard work continues and as well as detailing our achievements so far, our impact report also outlines our accelerated plans for expanding the charitable services we offer. We must ensure we continue to pro-actively support the industry’s mental wellbeing and make our services easy to access and freely available to everyone and I am proud to say that we have been able to provide life changing support to our construction community.
“But our work is only possible due to the fantastic support we receive and I would like to thank every single person and company that has helped us, especially during these difficult and uncertain times. You have helped us take another step towards our mission to ensure that no construction worker or their family is alone in a crisis.”
