A £1m range of innovative projects has been launched to tackle challenges around rural loneliness.

The projects will also help people maintain physical and mental health and independence as active members of their communities across this large rural county.

Unveiled by North Yorkshire County Council, the projects will be supported by an Innovation Fund worth nearly £1m overall - with more than £450,000 to distributed in the first round.

They include visual and performing arts workshops; pop-up community cafes; counselling services; physical fitness workshops; and volunteer schemes to help elderly people stay warm during winter months.

The aim of the Innovation Fund, which has been set up by the county council, is to support the transformation of health and adult social care in North Yorkshire.

It is also backed by NHS Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group and Craven District Council for the purpose of tackling fuel poverty.

Up to 41 projects across the county will be delivered by voluntary and community partners, including Rural Action Yorkshire, Age UK, Live Music Now, National Energy Action, Relate, Wellspring Therapy and Training and Purple Patch Arts.

The projects have been chosen to address three main themes: reducing loneliness and isolation; prevention of falls and supporting people to remain in their own homes. They include:

* arts programmes and community cafés for people suffering social exclusion due to mental health problems;
* physical exercise workshops and yoga training aiming to prevent falls in the elderly community;
* supporting adults with a history of substance abuse into community action; and
* the development of community hubs using village halls and other existing venues in rural areas for early social care intervention such as dementia befriending.

County Councillor Don MacKenzie said: "The council is using this investment as a key part of its wider drive to help people to maintain their independence, and to encourage local communities to care for their residents.

"North Yorkshire is home to an increasingly elderly population, for whom isolation is becoming a reality.

"As an authority, we are all too aware of the effects of loneliness on health and social care, and that overcoming isolation represents a major challenge across a rural county with sparse populations.

"We also wish to bring about a reduction in the number of falls suffered by our residents, because these so often lead people to become fearful and to withdraw from social activity. For these reasons, I welcome this next round of targeted investments by the Innovation Fund."

The Innovation Fund is managed by Your Consortium, an enterprise based in Knaresborough.

It aims to improve the lives of individuals and communities through enabling delivery of a wide range of high-quality services to build a robust social economy.

Sue Vasey, chief executive of Your Consortium, said: "Our experience working with voluntary and community partners over the last seven years has shown that the sector is well able to deliver targeted, cost-effective work and to find innovative approaches to project and partnership working.

"It was great to see so many quality applications and innovative thinking.

"We are a passionate supporter of the voluntary and community sector and the range of exciting solutions proposed by partners to address profound challenges is testament to the sector's innovative and creative thinking. "