The A.T Beacon Project is a clinically led initiative of Ascension Trust delivering innovative neighbourhood level interventions that address health inequalities.
Over the last 12 months, we have been extremely busy across our 5 regular Beacon Hubs in key hotspots in Lambeth where we have seen over 14,500 people. From building trust in underserved communities, to delivering blood pressure checks and signposting to various health agencies, our highlights include a highly successful fruit and vegetable prescription programme for those with diet-related ill health - the interim data from this has already demonstrated significant improvement in key health outcomes such as blood pressure and wellbeing for the 51 individuals (and their families) enrolled in this pilot.
Our Hubs
We deliver drop-in Health & Wellbeing Hubs in 6 key locations across Lambeth.
St Mark's Church in Kennington (weekly)
Levels Barbershop on Streatham High Road (weekly)
The Community Shop, a social supermarket in West Norwood (weekly)
St John’s Church in Angell Town, Brixton (fortnightly)
Unit 7, Warwick House also in Angell Town (fortnightly)
Our Outreach
Since March 2023, we have continued to make every contact count. For example, our innovative wellbeing assessment tool (High 5ive) and our mental health and wellbeing support continues to ensure that the most vulnerable are directed back into local pathways where they can receive the necessary help and support that they need. No doubt, our clinicians and health ambassadors have popped up with their clipboards and friendly smiles in all sorts of strange places as we steam ahead to “go where they go”.
To name a few, we have delivered outreach services to All Nations Church in Vauxhall, the Lambeth Country Show (over 2 days), Streatham Mosque and 24 diverse Churches in Lambeth. Supported by a dedicated team of AT Beacon clinicians (3 GPs, 3 nurses, and a lifestyle medicine practitioner), Beacon ambassadors and volunteers from a range of disciplines in secondary care, our faith outreach team have engaged close to 3,500 people in a year– (that is approximately 140 people per session).
Moreover, with nearly 200 onward referrals, we have taken hold of multiple opportunities to avoid late presentations. In this vein, we have also supported a PCN in Lambeth to deliver a health outreach day in a local church – hence
providing their patients access to a range of professionals and holistic services at their convenience and in a trusted space.
Our Impact
We know the important role that community leaders play and we continue to stand on their broad shoulders and platforms to make impact locally and nationally. Co-production and collaborative effort has seen our GP Clinical Lead, Dr Chi-Chi Ekhator take the stage at a recent national faith leaders conference delivering a segment on the topic of health and wellbeing, where over 400 black faith leaders were in attendance. She has also featured on multiple media platforms in a truly engaging and informative manner such as the BBC Radio 4 programme, “Beyond Belief” presented by Aleem Maqbool - discussing the very important topic of addiction. Her other speaking engagements has included the Royal College of
Psychiatry annual Spirituality SIG Conference as part of a multi faith panel.
More recently, we were delighted to showcase the work of AT Beacon Project on a special episode of BBC Songs of Praise to commemorate World Health Day 2024 with our innovative approach to improve the health and wellbeing of communities.
Our Message
The success of A. T Beacon has been built on our extensive and deep rooted, trusted networks locally, regionally, and nationally - spanning over 30 years as Ascension Trust.
We know that communities trust us, they appreciate our authenticity and our novel approach has consistently demonstrated that nobody is too hard to reach and nobody deserves to be left behind. Hence, we continue to up-scale and up-skill our offer beyond the traditional walls of primary care to support the NHS and public health services at this critical time.
We recognise that there is still much work to be done as we face the sequelae of the cost of living crisis and the impending need to turn our gaze to the opportunities ahead to reduce the impact on vulnerable communities.
To support our approach, the President of Ascension Trust, Rev Les Isaac recently delivered a rousing call to action at a recent Black Health Summit, inspiring a room of clinicians, partners, and organisations to think outside the box, “the Beacon and Lambeth way” so that more communities can be reached across the UK.
Our Media Highlights
Our AT Beacon Clinical Lead, Dr Ekhator has given voice to amplify the plight of those that are ‘seldom seen and heard’ at other key gatherings – for example at the Fabian Women’s network Summit, the Health Inequalities Conference 2023 in Manchester, the Integrative Personalised Medicine Conference 2023 alongside Doctors Kitchen’s Dr Rupy Aujla, the Centre for Food Policy Symposium 2023, BBC Radio Food Programme with Dan Saladino alongside the CEO of the Alexandra Rose Charity, on an NHSE led technical advisory group for Professor Bola Owolabi, Lambeth Executive Meetings and at round tables with ICB leads and commissioners.
Other key highlights include Dr Chi-Chi’s panel support at OHID’s
Public Health Forum in November 2023 alongside Prof Kevin Fenton with the session drawing 260 delegates to hear about the work of the AT Beacon Project.
We were also delighted by the prestigious BBC Food and Farming award 2023 bestowed on our partner, the Alexandra Rose charity for their work also encompassing our Lambeth fruit and veg on prescription scheme.
Highlights from our amazing ambassadors include Dr. Roxanne Crosby-Nwaobi from Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust who was recently awarded researcher of the year 2023 by the Nursing Awards - this fantastic award is amongst other awards she has achieved this last year. Our lead GP, Dr Chi-Chi was commended as a finalist for the Lambeth Civic Award – in the category “Councilors Choice – Innovative Service Award” as well as a recipient of a coveted Wise Woman Award in the “Community Award” category for her work in leading the AT Beacon project.
And finally, to top off our media highlights, a whole episode of the BBC Food Programme, presented by Sheila Dillon which was recorded over two days on ground with the AT Beacon team, aired a few months ago and details the impact of our work. Please see the link below as well links to the BBC Songs of Praise episode and other media links.
Our Plans
In the year ahead, we look forward to working with key Academic institutions and
organisations both here in the UK and internationally to deliver more impactful work around wellbeing, social justice, eradicating poverty, and food insecurity.
Look out also for our upcoming prostate cancer campaign in partnership with Prostate Cancer UK and the local Lambeth cancer alliance.
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