Gatwick Foundation Fund supports five projects across Sussex to support young and vulnerable groups

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Gatwick Foundation Fund supports five projects across Sussex to support young and vulnerable groups

  • Projects supporting older people include a cabaret tea club in Crawley for those at risk of social isolation and funding for 250 home visits in Horsham
  • Grants for young people will help disadvantaged families with children across Sussex and cookery classes in Crawley to encourage team work
  • Running costs for East Grinstead foodbank also supported

GATWICK, UK, 2018-Nov-09 — /Travel PR News/ — Gatwick today (05/11/2018) announced the latest round of Gatwick Foundation Fund grants to five projects across Sussex that support young people, the elderly or vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.

The Fund distributes a total of £300,000 in grants with the funding split evenly between projects in Sussex, Surrey and Kent, with each receiving £100,000 each year.  To date, 118 organisations and more than 55,000 people have benefited from the Fund since it was launched late in 2016.

Three rounds of funding are announced every year and the Sussex-based projects below will receive the latest grants:

  • The Posh Club, Crawley – a weekly tea club for adults aged 65+ at risk of social isolation – styled as a tongue in cheek ‘posh’ 1940s high tea – with cabaret acts, waiters in black tie, vintage crockery, and an in-house pianist. The grant will help run the club, including hall hire for 16 weeks in the year, 5 weeks of core staff costs and 18 weeks of volunteer travel.
  • Age UK Horsham – aims to reduce poverty, loneliness and isolation and improve health and well-being among older people in the Horsham District. Funding enables Age UK to make 200-250 home visits to offer advice and support to older people who may be vulnerable, housebound or unable to travel.
  • Crawley, Horsham and Mid Sussex Home-Start – transforms the life chances of vulnerable local children and families, with trained volunteers providing emotional and practical support. Grant will go towards cost of delivering vital services for disadvantaged families with a child under 5 years.
  • Crawley Community Youth Service – delivers sessions to over 300 young people each week helping to raise their aspirations and improve their general wellbeing. Award will go towards hiring someone to run weekly cookery sessions, buy equipment, ingredients and prepare take-home resources – to encourage both cooking and team work as they will also deliver community meals.
  • East Grinstead Foodbank seeks to provide a minimum of three days emergency food for local people in need. Funding is to help meet key core costs of running the foodbank, including staff wages, rent and insurance of a warehouse.

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 has now received two grants from the Gatwick Foundation Fund towards its ongoing running costs.”

Age UK East Grinstead & District Chief Operations Manager, Barry Gilbert said:

“Through our outreach service isolated and lonely older people who have not had any contact through the normal channels, have benefited greatly. It is only through grants and donations such as Gatwick’s that allows us to continue to do this kind of work and support our older people in the community.”

Gatwick’s Foundation Fund is part of the airport’s commitment to share the benefits the airport generates with its local communities. This work remains a priority and the proposals set out in Gatwick’s new draft master plan would see the airport generating even greater benefits for future generations.

Gatwick Airport’s Community Engagement Manager, Melanie Wrightson, said:

“We are delighted to be awarding another round of grants from our Foundation Fund to community projects across Sussex.  Each organisation does incredible work and we have purposely chosen them as they help young people, vulnerable families or the elderly.

“We support community projects as it’s a great way for us to share some of the benefits we generate among local people who, perhaps may not directly benefit from the jobs or other economic contributions we bring to the region.  Our exciting new draft master plan sets out how we might grow so that we can continue to support local communities with this vital investment for generations to come.”

Community Foundations

Kent, Surrey and Sussex Community Foundations manage the programme and assess all applications for their county. These local trusts and foundations raise funds for and make grants to local charities and community groups, and also manage grant funds on behalf of a wide range of donors, including companies, charities and private individuals. To find out how to apply to the Gatwick Foundation Fund, please contact your local Community Foundation.

About Gatwick Airport

Gatwick’s 2018 draft master plan sets out proposals for the airport’s ongoing development and sustainable growth. It also outlines the airport’s latest thinking on how it can meet the increasing demand for air travel and provide Britain with enhanced global connectivity. A public consultation will run on the draft master plan until 10 January 2019 and will help inform the publication of the final master plan next year.

Gatwick Airport is the UK’s second largest airport. 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 and generates around 85,000 jobs nationally, with 24,000 of these located on the airport. 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.

For further information on Gatwick Airport see www.gatwickairport.com or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatwick_Airport

Media enquiries to:
GATWICK AIRPORT PRESS OFFICE
+ 44 (0) 1293 505000
gatwickmedia@gatwickairport.com

Source: GATWICK AIRPORT

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