£100k Community Impact Funding Supports Local Organisations To ‘Carry On’

Seven organisations and charities have benefitted from a staggering £100,000 donation by a Bristol care home trust.

Under its Community Impact programme, the St Monica’s Trust has spread £100K across a variety of worthy causes and groups to ensure they can carry on their good work: The Bristol and Avon Chinese Women’s Group, Bristol Poverty Action Group, Life Cycle, North Bristol Advice Centre, Southern Brooks and Way Out West were among those to benefit.

Originally St Monica’s Trust had planned to allocate a generous sum of £60,000 but said the quality of the applications received meant they added another £40,000 to the total to donate to this continuity project.

The funding will support established projects which are already making a difference in their local communities, rather than funding start-up projects. The aim is to support organisations to continue providing vital services for older people, whilst looking for ways of improving levels of sustainability.

Community Connections Manager, Debbie Wills, said: “The Community Impact funding initiative originally planned to award grants totalling £60k. However, the quality and breadth of the applications we received was so overwhelming that we agreed to increase the available funding to £100k.”

“We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to apply for funding and we think we’ve chosen a broad range of organisations who are all providing vital services for older people across the south west. This includes helping older people to access welfare services, encouraging isolated older people to engage with social activities and funding a community choir.”

Local organisations who improve the lives of older people were invited to apply for funding to the St Monica Trust’s Community Impact Team in October. Funding of up to a maximum of £20,000 was then awarded to organisations who are working to improve the lives of individuals aged 55+.

For more information about the Community Giving Fund go to www.stmonicatrust.org.uk/supporting-communities/community-fund