The Community Foundation for Surrey award over £300k in grants for the benefit of the local community during October 2018

3rd December 2018

The Community Foundation for Surrey is delighted to have awarded over £300k in their recent round of grant awards to local voluntary groups and disadvantaged individuals within Surrey.

The philanthropic charity awards grants to community groups across the county that are striving to tackle community needs in areas of health and wellbeing, education and skills, disadvantage and exclusion, community cohesion, the environment, sports and the arts.

Each year, the Foundation works with over 400 groups working hard to make a difference in Surrey, and last year distributed over £1.2 million in grants to support people in need. The Foundation is, this year, set to award even more.

A wide selection of local groups and charities have received funding in this quarter, including The Amber Foundation who received £26,500 for their Team Leader Salary.

Based in Ockley, The Amber Foundation provide help to homeless unemployed young people, supporting them to gain the motivation, confidence and skills they need to gain and sustain work and accommodation. Often, these young people have misused drugs or alcohol and/or been involved in crime; they may have no qualifications and are subsequently lacking in self-esteem.

Alongside the provision of accommodation for over 100 homeless young people each year, this charity will also provide a structured programme that builds young people’s motivation, self-discipline and skill set, aiming to move individuals on to employment or training, and their own accommodation.

Phillipa Wilford, Fundraising Manager, the Amber Foundation said:

“This grant will provide vital funding for our Team leaders, who are the lifeblood of the Amber programme, delivering one to one support to the vulnerable young people that we aim to help. We are so grateful for the support from the Foundation and look forward to working with them over the coming year to make an even greater impact in transforming young lives in Surrey.”

Emerge Advocacy received a grant of £6,690 for salary costs to establish a mental health support project in another local Hospital. The charity promotes and protect good health, in particular for those aged between 14 and 21 suffering from mental illness or emotional distress. Supportive adults operate as mentors and role models for the young people they work with. Emerge was created as a response to these young people’s needs and vulnerability, and in response to a desire to make a difference to them during and after their time of crisis. Support, both in Accident & Emergency and later in the community, will help reduce levels of anxiety, increase cooperation with health care professionals, and help the young people to engage with statutory services. By doing this, they help reduce the likelihood of further crisis in future.

Joy Wright, Founder, Emerge Advocacy said:

“Following the success of our work at the Royal Surrey County Hospital supporting young people attending A&E with mental health issues, Emerge has experienced significant demand for our service across a number of Surrey hospitals. This grant from the Community Foundation for Surrey has made it possible for me to have dedicated time to work on expanding to a second site, in partnership with ‘East to West’, an Egham based youth work charity.”

Kate Peters, Director of Grants and Impact, Community Foundation for Surrey said:

“We received an outstanding set of applications this round. I only wish we could fund them all but am very pleased that 80% of applications have received support.  I am also thrilled to have been able to make awards to some groups which have not applied to us previously – like the Prison Fellowship and also the Weyside Keychange Charity which provides safe and secure accommodation with support for insecurely housed or homeless, excluded, marginalised and deprived women.”

Just some of the other beneficiaries from this round of the Community Foundation for Surrey’s grants include, women’s domestic abuse charity Your Sanctuary and Momentum Children’s Charity supporting children with cancer and life-challenging conditions, and their families.