Our latest Happiness Fund Winners – Winning Steps South West (WSSW)!

The Laughology Happiness Fund is all about making sustainable differences at a community level. We love funding projects and organisations that make a real difference to people’s lives. Our latest Fund winner, Winning Steps South West (WSSW), does just that.

Set up in 2011, the organisation is like a Swiss Army Knife of community causes, setting up small-scale initiatives for vulnerable people across Cornwall and then giving them the skills and support to sustain those initiatives themselves.

Nikki Markham MBE is WSSW director. She explains: “The idea is that we work with the most vulnerable people within our communities. That could be the elderly, people with life limiting illnesses, disabled single parents, carers or those living in food and fuel poverty. 

“Our model is unique in the respect that we have a very small turnover. We have a lot of volunteers. We use small pots of money to start a project. For instance, we set up a walking club for people over 50 who were living in isolation. It brought people together and gave them the opportunity to improve not just physical health, but mental health and wellbeing.”

WSSW guided the walks for ten weeks, and during that time it trained volunteers in first aid and safeguarding so they could be walking leaders and run the project themselves.

“We set that up about six years ago and it's still going strong,” says Nikki.

The organisation also provides volunteers and training for other projects. 

“It’s about developing a project, putting it back to the community, tweaking it, running it, reviewing it, reflecting on it, tweaking it again, and then giving those volunteers the skills they need to continue post funding,” Nikki adds. 

“It's about finding ways to empower people and do it in such a way that it gives them the agency to contribute, which really does boost people's well-being and happiness because that sense of purpose and of giving to others and being involved in a community is intrinsic to all of us. If you feel that you are part of something, that makes you happy.”

The £5,000 Happiness Fund grant will enable a very special project.

In response to the cost-of-living crisis, WSSW set up a community hub where people could go to keep warm, have a warm meal, a hot drink and socialise. The hub now distributes around 150kg of food a week and serves up to 60 hot meals a day for people who can't afford to have a hot meal. 

It has become a vital community resource but with no outside space as the weather warms, people are forced to stay inside. Our grant will help to turn a disused courtyard at the back of the hub into a garden, with seating, plants and tables.

“It's going to be a space for all those people who are really struggling at the moment,” says Nikki. “It will offer free teas and coffees and will be a haven and a safe space for people to enjoy.” 

Knowing that our Happiness Fund Grant will create sustainable happiness makes us happy too.