Cardiac Arrest Community Resilience
We are delighted to share that our Charity has been awarded a £142,000 grant from NHS Charities Together. This comes from their £1.85 million Community Resilience Grants Fund in partnership with Omaze, to improve survival rates for life-threatening emergencies such as out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
The funding will enable the South Western Ambulance Charity to strengthen community resilience and preparedness across the South West by funding the below initiatives:
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Community Response Vehicles: two new Community Response Vehicles dedicated for use by volunteer Community First Responders (CFRs).
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Defibrillator registration and accessibility: a new programme to increase the number of registered community defibrillators in the region. With funding support from the Charity, SWASFT has already assisted over 700 schools across the South West with the correct installation and registration of defibrillators, with 84% of schools now registered on The Circuit.
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Community Ambassador Programme: to help establish a new Community Ambassador volunteer role. These volunteers will be trained as Basic Life Support (BLS) instructors, enabling them to deliver standardised CPR and defibrillation training with the aim of increasing confidence and competence, ensuring more people are prepared to act effectively in an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest situation.
Zoe Larter, Head of Charity at the South Western Ambulance Charity said:
“We are incredibly grateful to NHS Charities Together and Omaze for their generous support and funding. This grant will allow us to strengthen our work in equipping communities with the skills and resources needed to respond effectively in emergencies.
By improving access to defibrillators, providing essential training, supporting our volunteer Community First Responders and with particular focus on ensuring health equity, we can help to save more lives across the South West.”
You can read more about this exciting programme in the South Western Ambulance Service media release at South Western Ambulance Charity receives £142k boost to help with out-of-hospital cardiac arrests | News | SWAST Website
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact us on 0300 3690108 or email charity@swast.nhs.uk.