Six projects across Cheshire and Warrington have won a share of a £43k pot funded by Cheshire Community Foundation and the Tampon Tax Community Fund.
The Tampon Tax Fund allocates funds generated from the VAT on sanitary products to projects that improve the lives of disadvantaged women and girls.
Groups were asked to submit a project plan setting out when they would do with the funding to meet local need and how it would make a difference to women and girls in their community. The groups that best met the criteria and priorities of the programme were awarded funding.
Cheshire Community Foundation is highly experienced in ensuring funding for communities are spent responsibly and grants are monitored to ensure they meet their outcomes.
The six projects are:
Motherwell Cheshire CIO, Crewe - awarded £9,796
This Crewe charity supports the mental health and personal wellbeing of mums. Their services cater for mums-to-be through to grandmothers with fully-grown children. They have an excellent team of professionals on board to provide much-needed support. The funding will be used to extend their Bright Stars mentoring programme which pairs experienced mothers over the age of 50 with younger mothers who are experiencing mental health issues and who may have had their child taken away.
The SMILE Group, Macclesfield - awarded £9,999
The SMILE Group was set up by mums in Macclesfield for families who are struggling with parenthood or who have postnatal depression. Now extended into Congleton and Sandbach, the peer support groups offer people the chance to meet other in a similar situation. They will use their funding to grow their successful 1-1 Home Visits Programme which supports mums living in the postcodes surrounding the three centres.
Fallen Angels Dance Theatre, Chester - awarded £5,635
Based at Storyhouse in Chester, this dance theatre charity supports those in recovery from addiction to transform their lives. The funding will bring a group of 10 women in recovery together in a series of dance and wellbeing workshops to explore and articulate issues that have affected their lives.
Chester Voluntary Action, Chester - awarded £5,000
Chester Voluntary Action works with local businesses to help them support the needs of the community. The money will be used to develop their Trusted Women programme to better equip women who want to contribute to the leadership of charitable organisations. The project will also recruit mentors through existing links in the third sector, including women led organisations.
Home-Start Cheshire - awarded £9,623
Home-Start Cheshire provides a support service throughout the county for parents overwhelmed by the stresses of family life. The funding will give intense support over the course of a year to six mothers with extremely low levels of lifestyle and confidence.
Warrington Youth Club - awarded £3,578
Based in the heart of the town centre, Warrington Youth Club, established in 1952, inspires young people by offering them opportunities to gain, increase and develop their skills. They will spend the funding on a programme to help vulnerable teenage girls to receive support from trained staff and like-minded peers.
Zoe Sheppard, CEO of Cheshire Community Foundation, said: "Community Foundations work with grassroots groups who are running vital services on a shoestring and supporting some of the most marginalised people in our society. This funding will enable them to run some amazing projects that make difference on the ground to the women and girls who need it most."
Community Foundations were oversubscribed in all areas for the Tampon Tax Community Fund. Only a quarter of the 1,500 applications for vital women and girls’ projects nationally could be supported from this stream of funding.
Community Foundations are independent charities that make grants to support grassroots groups. They work with local businesses, funders and government to create tailored programmes of grant-making that respond to the needs and assets of communities. They also distribute funding secured through national programmes, including the Tampon Tax Community Fund.
www.cheshirecommunityfoundation.org.uk