Suffolk Libraries receives £170k for menopause support programme

Suffolk Libraries has received £170k of funding for a new project to provide support and advice for people who are experiencing the menopause and perimenopause.

The funding has been announced after Suffolk Libraries successfully applied to the Department of Health and Social Care’s Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Health and Wellbeing Fund.

The fund aims to help people to remain in or return to the workplace through and following pregnancy, pregnancy loss or menopause which was one of the aims set out in the first ever Women’s Health Strategy for England.

£1.97m has recently been awarded to various projects around the country from this fund.

Suffolk Libraries will be working with Suffolk Mind and other partners on the project which will focus on three key elements:

• Working with local employers to encourage them to sign up to a pledge to support people experiencing the menopause or perimenopause
• Supporting people with lived experience of the menopause to help to develop ways of supporting them and other people
• Producing and sharing a range of dedicated resources via the Suffolk Libraries website all designed to support employers and people experiencing the menopause or perimenopause.

Suffolk Libraries is in the planning stages of this project which we hope to launch in Spring 2023. Anyone interested in finding out more about this project can sign up to our health and wellbeing newsletter, where we'll be sharing updates as the project progresses.

Jane Cox, Suffolk Libraries’ Community Mental Health & Wellbeing Manager, said:

“We’re absolutely delighted to receive this funding which will allow us to work with partner organisations and local employers to deliver a new service which can make a difference to the lives of thousands of people in Suffolk. It’s likely around a third of women in the UK are currently peri or menopausal but it’s not something we talk about enough and there is much more we can do to support them both in society and in the workplace.

"Suffolk Libraries is well placed to deliver this new service as health and wellbeing is already embedded in everything we do and we work closely with many local organisations to provide support and signposting advice across the county.”

There will soon be more information on our website but anyone looking for more information or organisations and businesses who would like to register their interest can email bethany.fisher@suffolklibraries.co.uk.

Disclaimer: For the purpose of this project we may refer to ‘women’, but we recognise this project and its outputs apply to transgender and non-binary people and this project will be inclusive of all people that might experience the (peri)menopause.