North East business life: community, award and charity events of the week

The Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) has achieved a Gold Better Health at Work award in recognition of its commitment to promoting health and wellbeing to colleagues and the wider community. Better Health at Work recognises the efforts of employers in addressing health issues in the workplace, with a range of accreditations available.

NHC – a non-profit membership organisation for social housing providers and local authorities – secured the Bronze Better Health at Work award in 2022, the Silver award in 2023, and will be presented with the Gold award at a ceremony this spring. During the past year, NHC has focused on areas of wellbeing including nutrition, financial wellbeing, mental health, physical wellbeing, and men’s and women’s health.

Kay Wiseman, NHC’s HR and wellbeing manager, said: “NHC has had a staff-led wellbeing group in place for several years which we’ve developed and grown to create a strong culture of health and wellbeing across every level of the organisation. We take a collaborative approach, staff tell us the topics that are important to them, and we shape our programmes around that feedback. People know it’s not just a box-ticking exercise for us; rather our staff are at the heart of everything we do. We want our people to feel their best and make mental and physical wellbeing a priority every day.

“Better wellbeing means more happier and more productive colleagues and better results across the board. Supporting and caring for our people remains a key part of our values and culture and we look forward to further developing our many initiatives and programmes.”

A North East charity that provides animal-assisted therapies to help people struggling with their mental health has received help from regional businesses. Prudhoe-based Humbles Wood Animal Activity Centre CIC has benefitted from a package of groundworks support from Newcastle-based affordable homes builder Adderstone Living in partnership with N&T Civils in Hartlepool, worth several thousands of pounds.

The support means the charity, which has created spaces where adults and children can experience the healing and uplifting benefits of interacting with goats, donkeys and pigs, has now had field drainage installed to reduce the risk of flooding across the site.

Clive Johnson and Clare Welsh, who run the Humbles Wood charity, said: “We just wanted to thank everyone involved in this project. We are absolutely over the moon that Adderstone Living together with N&T, have been able to help with the flooding problem. It will make a huge difference to improving the site, and help in our work to support the local community and caring for the animals.”

Adderstone Living’s director Peter Galbraith added: “We wanted to help out as much as we could and saw this as a great way to assist Clive and Clare with th