We’re pleased to share that we received 25 applications to our Community Benefit Fund this year. All of them were wonderful projects that we felt would truly benefit local communities, aid wellbeing, encourage the positive use of digital technologies and benefit the environment.
It did make choosing how to allocate the £30,000 we had set aside quite tricky, and more than once we wished we had a bigger pot of money to distribute.
Finally, our panel came to the decision to fund the following projects/organisations:
| Application | Project |
| Beck Row, Holywell Row & Kenny Hill Parish Council | To support the installation of a cycle park to provide a safe environment for children to learn to ride their bikes and practise road safety. |
| Fairview Farm Enterprises CIC | To equip a new sensory and quiet room for young people with complex needs. |
| Greener Growth CIC | To create a sustainable, multi-sensory, wildlife therapeutic garden to support the treatment and recuperation of patients at Wedgwood House. |
| Inclusive Response CIC | To help Children and Young People with anxiety, SEND and other additional needs. find the support required to move forward from this pandemic. |
| Lofty Heights CIC | To purchase a petrol garden shredder to speed up garden clearances, reduce waste removal costs and to create waste beneficial for plants/shrubs. |
| Our Special Friends | Towards supporting people with additional needs or experiencing times of vulnerability to care for or have contact with pets to enable them to cope. |
| Pathways Care Farm | To support people who are physically disabled, to come to our farm on one day per week for 12 weeks to participate in our vegetable box project. |
| Steel Bones | To provide participatory music, dance, crafts to help amputees who are struggling with anxiety, reduced confidence re-integrate back into the community. |
| Suffolk Family Carers | To develop and deliver digital resources that help people identify themselves or others as family carers. |
| Suffolk Sight | To support people with impaired vision use technology to communicate with friends & family and access virtual community events and activities. |
| The Befriending Scheme | To support ‘Mindful Mondays’ which empowers people to help themselves manage their long-term wellbeing more confidently. |
| The Sunflower Community Care Farm CIC. | Supporting economically disadvantaged women struggling with anxiety and depression to attend the care farm to build skills and a sense of hopefulness. |
| West Suffolk Hive CIC | To support families in Suffolk with children with additional needs attend forest school sessions. |
We think you’ll agree they are fantastic projects and organisations and we are looking forward to sharing their progress with you over the coming year.
If you want to find out more about these brilliant organisations, click on their names to go through to their websites.
