Fifth Sense awarded significant grant by the National Lottery Community Fund
We are celebrating an early Christmas present at Fifth Sense following the success of our grant application to the National Lottery Community Fund. The grant will support the delivery of the Fifth Sense Social Action Programme, which will place people with smell and taste disorders at the heart of our efforts to drive change in recognition, support and care at a grassroots level across England.
The funding will support a three-year programme of volunteer-led activity, led by a new team member who will be responsible for recruiting, training and supporting groups of volunteers. Our groups will be made up of people with lived experience of smell and taste disorders working alongside experts from the food, beverage, fragrance industry and other relevant areas. The groups will deliver localised support, engagement, and outreach activities to ensure that more people get the information and help they need and that recognition and support for people living with smell and taste disorders continues to grow.
‘Fifth Sense has been built on people power’ said founder and Chief Executive Duncan Boak. ‘The charity was run solely by volunteers for the first 8 years of our existence, and we achieved a lot by bringing together people’s skills, lived experience and motivation to work towards a shared vision.
Whilst the Covid-19 pandemic has created more awareness of smell and taste disorders than ever before, more than anything it has highlighted the lack of recognition, support and services for all those living with these sensory impairments, whatever the cause. Fifth Sense is leading the fight for change and this project will enable the people we represent and those whose careers and passions depend on these vital senses to work together to help us deliver this.
I am delighted that the National Lottery Community Fund has recognised the track record that Fifth Sense has in successfully delivering our work and that the time for this project is now.’
We would like to take the opportunity to thank the National Lottery Community Fund for supporting our work and to all the National Lottery players, without whom this grant award would not have been possible.