We’ve Been Awarded Funding from The National Lottery Community Fund!
We’re pleased to share that The Body Happy Organisation has been awarded £20,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund to deliver our Body Happy Communities Programme in Plymouth.
Beginning in early 2026, the programme will run from the Burrington Community Hub, which is linked to All Saints Academy Plymouth — one of the brilliant pilot schools we worked with while developing our whole-school programme last academic year. All sessions will be free to access and open to people of all ages living in the surrounding area.
Year 10 peer advocates and BHO facilitators in the Burrington Community Hub for a community-facing workshop as part of our whole school pilot last academic year
Why a community programme?
Until now, most of our delivery has taken place in school settings. Through our recent work - including our programme at All Saints Academy Plymouth supported by the People’s Postcode Lottery, the Norman Family Trust and the Fair Education Alliance - we’ve learned that conversations around body respect don’t stop at the school gates.
Young people’s experiences of confidence, identity and belonging are shaped and reinforced across many environments:
at home
online
in community and youth settings
through relationships with friends, caregivers and trusted adults
across generations
Extending our work into a community setting gives us the opportunity to explore how body respect can be supported more broadly, and how belonging can be strengthened in ways that feel relational, local and part of everyday life.
Some of the work we’ve done in schools this year - the peer advocacy strand of the programme is the seed of this new Community offer
What the programme will involve
Across the year, we’ll offer regular after-school sessions and school holiday activities designed to support wellbeing, confidence and connection. These may include:
creative and advocacy-led projects
food-positive cookalongs
body-affirming movement and wellbeing activities
opportunities for older volunteers and young people to participate together
A key part of the programme will involve training and supporting older volunteers to take part, contribute skills and build meaningful relationships across generations.
Rather than delivering a fixed curriculum, we’ll shape the work collaboratively with young people, local residents and community partners. All activities will be grounded in our Body Happy Skills framework: Literacy, Resilience, Kindness and Advocacy.
“We’re thrilled to help build on the fantastic work The Body Happy Organisation™ CIC began at All Saints Academy and to extend it further into our community through the Burrington Community Hub. As a warm and inclusive space at the heart of our area, the Hub is the perfect place to help shape a programme that reflects the real needs and strengths of the community we’re proud to support.”
How this fits into our wider national work
This community strand sits alongside our school delivery - not instead of it.
Throughout 2026, we’ll continue working with schools across the UK, building partnerships with local authorities and contributing to wider sector and policy developments - including the Eating Disorders All-Party Parliamentary Group and the Expert Working Group for the Centre of Digital Literacy in Schools.
This new strand allows us to explore what body respect looks like at a community level - and how different generations, volunteers, educators and young people can contribute to lasting culture change together.
Learning from this programme will help shape how similar approaches may be developed with other communities across the UK in the future.
What happens next
We’re now in the early planning stage - meeting with local partners, mapping interest and preparing for delivery.
We’ll share updates as the programme develops, including opportunities for local residents and partners to get involved or volunteer.
For now, we’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to the National Lottery Community Fund for making this work possible.
