- Projects include a theatre providing interactive experiences for people with disabilities and a ‘Get Active’ project for girls in Mid Sussex schools
- To date 80 projects benefitting more than 46,000 local people already supported
LONDON, UK, 2018-Apr-26 — /Travel PR News/ — London Gatwick has today announced the latest round of grants from the Gatwick Foundation Fund with a further £100,000 awarded to 21 deserving projects across Kent, Surrey and Sussex, which are expected to benefit up to 7,500 people.
The diverse range of projects in the latest round include:
- Head2Head Theatre based in Ashtead, Surrey – a theatre company providing interactive experiences for people with disabilities
- Mid Sussex Active, based in Burgess Hill, Sussex – a ‘Get Active’ project providing girls in Mid Sussex schools with the chance to take part in physical activity sessions they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to engage with
- Nova Children’s Project, based in Tonbridge, Kent – a community crowdfunding project providing holiday breaks and weekend clubs for young people with disabilities
To date, 80 organisations and more than 46,000 people have benefited from the grants and reported improvements in the services they provide, which cover four main areas: Employment, training and skills; Families; Widening horizons and Elderly people.
The annual £300,000 fund is awarded in three rounds of grants across the year in partnership with the Community Foundations for Kent, Surrey and Sussex, which bring forward shortlisted applications for funding. The grants are evenly distributed across projects in each of the counties, which receive £100,000 each. Gatwick employees also support projects close to their heart through volunteering.
Gatwick Airport’s Head of Community Engagement, Alison Addy, said:
“We are delighted to once again be awarding grants from our Foundation Fund to community projects across Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
“Each of the selected organisations do incredible work in the local communities and it is an important part of the airport’s community engagement strategy to support them with this vital investment.”
Area Education Manager, Malcolm Richmond, said:
“This funding will allow the Workers’ Educational Association to support older people at risk of social isolation to attend a range of activities in their local area where they will meet people of a similar age and interests. We will run a programme of courses and provide encouragement and practical assistance so they can attend.
“With the support of the Gatwick Foundation Fund they will now be able to benefit from increased social interaction with other students through attending classes and learning their chosen subject”.
Full-time volunteer administrator for the Head2Head Theatre, Anni Rhodes-Steere, said:
“In order to engage with our audiences of children with disabilities and their families, we create walkabout, immersive, multi-sensory experiences. For the first time, and thanks to support from the Gatwick Foundation Fund, we were able to create professionally designed sets and props that really ‘set the scene’ for our adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s ‘Peter and Wendy’.
“These magical sets helped the audience to follow the storyline as everyone moved to each new setting. We are delighted with our new sets and very grateful to Gatwick for the support they have given us and the special needs community in which we work.”
Community Development Worker, Becca Lundberg, said:
“The Posh Club in Crawley provides sparkly, glamorous, warm hearted, weekly entertainment and social events specifically aimed at older people in their 70s, 80s and 90s who are sometimes lonely, a bit socially isolated or ‘don’t get out much’. The Club received a £2,000 grant from the Gatwick Foundation Fund last year towards its ongoing running costs.”
In the first round of grants of 2018, the 21 projects across Kent, Surrey and Sussex which have been awarded £100,000 include the following:
Kent
Workers’ Educational Association
Friends of Holcot
Young at Heart Club
Compaid
West Kent Mind
Nova Children’s Project
Sussex
Age UK East Grinstead and District
Family Support Work
Horsham Child Contact Centre
Rivers Learning Project Community
Christians Against Poverty – Crawley Debt Centre
Mid Sussex Active
Surrey
Dorking Nursery School and Dorking Rural Sure Start Children’s Centre
Fegans
Furnistore in East Surrey Limited
Head2Head Theatre
Reigate & Banstead Women’s Aid
Southwark Diocesan Welcare
Staywell
Tandridge Voluntary Action
The Compassionate Friends
Ends
About London Gatwick
Gatwick Airport is the UK’s second largest airport and the most efficient single-runway airport in the world. It serves more than 228 destinations in 74 countries for 45 million passengers a year on short and long-haul point-to-point services. It is also a major economic driver for the UK contributing £5.3 billion to national GDP and generating 85,000 jobs nationally, with around 24,000 on the wider airport campus alone. The airport is south of Central London with excellent public transport links, including the Gatwick Express, and is part of the Oyster contactless payment network. Gatwick Airport is owned by a group of international investment funds, of which Global Infrastructure Partners is the largest shareholder.
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SOURCE: Gatwick Airport Limited