Our fourth feature on groups receiving a grant from National Grid’s Community Matters Fund (Fuel Poverty) takes us to Headway Derby in the East Midlands who support people with severe brain injuries, where their CEO Emma Morris, guides us through their latest developments with our Head of Communications Luke Upton.

Luke Upton (LU): Thank you for speaking to us today, could you tell us about the community you serve in Derby? And why your support is needed. 

Emma Morris (EM): Headway Derby support adults that have sustained either an acquired or traumatic brain injury, as well as supporting their families. We offer a range of support including peer support groups, training courses, and an outreach service. We offer tailored support packages, ensuring that everyone gets the right support for them. 

Without our support people are left to fall through the cracks, and quite often find themselves in crisis for many years because they have had no support following their brain injury diagnosis. Headway Derby work within patient hospital services to ensure a smooth transition to community support for those who need it.  

LU: What’s been your particular focus in recent years?

EM: In recent years we have been focusing on reaching out to the wider brain injury community to make sure everyone that needs support can access it. We've done this through holding support sessions in other areas of the county as well as in people's homes and online. 

LU: You’ve just received funding from the Community Matters Fund from National Grid and Localgiving. Can you tell us some more about the project it will help fund and what it aims to deliver.

EM: Our warm space project will allow us to open our doors on a weekly basis to the brain injury community, including their families to offer advice and guidance around heating their homes and keeping warm in the winter months, whilst at the same time being able to offer items that will support them to remain warm such as blankets, draft excluders, and energy saving lightbulbs. We aim to support 50 people over the winter months to remain well and keep warm. 

LU: How important is this kind of funding to your organisation?

EM: It is very important to our charity so a big thank you to National Grid and Localgiving. Without funding like this we would see most of our service users in mental health and physical health crisis’ due to their financial situations, especially during the colder Winter months. Whilst we could signpost to other organisations, we would not be able to provide our service users and their families with stuff that makes a real difference to their lives and their wellbeing such as insulated curtains and blankets. So, this funding from the Community Matters Fund is crucial to help our community. Thank you!

Following a brain injury, people often find themselves in worse financial situations, and because of their pride do not reach out to services when they need help. We already have built up relationships with brain injury survivors and we are a community where they feel they can open-up and feel safe. 

LU: As we always ask, more money aside, what would help you most? 

EM: Good marketing and PR support would help Headway Derby the most. One of our biggest challenges as a small charity is to spread the word about our services and how we can support the brain injury community.  If we were able to present and market our services to a wider audience without huge costs, we would be able to support more people within Derby and Derbyshire, and advocate for brain injury awareness. 

LU: Great, thanks Emma, we look forward to continuing to help share and support your work.

---> Connect with Headway on Facebook here and LinkedIn here.