£250,000 from Heritage Lottery Fund for ecoACTIVE!

The Hackney Buzzline is an exciting project aiming to set up a 4 kilometre ‘buzzline’ for bees.The Hackney Buzzline will be a four kilometre ecological corridor extending through and between four east London parks. The parks are all local sites of importance for nature conservation. The corridor will be built by sowing wildflower meadows, planting flower beds and creating ‘stepping-stone’ habitats for pollinators every 100-200 metres along the route. Having invested a lot of time and energy in supporting Jess the CEO in developiung an application we have just heard that it was successful – £250,000 to help create this amazing lifeline over the next 3 years.

Incredible news for Fusion Housing Kirklees! £70,000 award!

Many organisations applied to the government’s Cost of Living crisis funding programme. Third Sector Consultancy worked with Fusion to apply for a grant for their increasingly needed Food and More propjevct. This doesn’t only help people with food to live, but works with them to learn new skills in order to manage their lives more as they wish to. This work was led by Rachel and was successful in being awarded a grant for £70,000!

New funding to support the Abigail Housing Drop-In

TSC has helped Abigail Housing access £105,000 over 3 years. This is  a contribution towards the salaries of the Destitution Project Manager and the Senior Project Worker. A significant proportion of both of these roles is providing advice, support, overseeing the drop-in sessions and managing and supporting the volunteers. The Destitution project currently supports 15 people in 4 shared houses in Bradford. We provide clean, safe accommodation in our shared houses, with regular welfare checks to ensure the standard of housing remains high. The houses are of a high standard, with private rooms, a shared kitchen, and access to Wi-Fi. They host a weekly drop-in for our service users, where they will be able to access cash support, vouchers, and where staff work with them to put together parcels that meet their needs for toiletries, household goods, and food. This drop-in is also a space where they can access wellbeing and skills development activities, including English language classes, casework meetings, and social activities with befrienders.  

30 year anniversary for Bradford Nightstop – celebrated with good news and some sadness

Last night John attended the AGM for Bradford Nightstop – as well as the AGM it was the 30th AGM – begun in a garage in 1993. In October two new films about Nightstop and the young homeless people it supports were premiered at Pictureville cinema. The support provided for thousands of young people was acknowledged – provided by home hosts in their own homes and in the shelter – backed up by volunteers telephone contact people and a small staff team – led by Joy Rainbow. The Good News was that our work has brought in a grant of £40,000 over two years from the Garfield Weston Foundation – following a visit from the Deputy Director of the Foundation. She was met by trustees and staff – and most importantly by one of the young people who has been supported by Nightstop. This young man was at the AGM and gave an inspiring and emotional account of living in a forest before he was referred to Bradford Nightstop – when he was able to turn his life around. he now lives in supported housing and is studying at college. The sadness referred to in the title of the post was about the fact that this significant issue of homelessness has not been solved over the last 30 years. Will it be over the next 30? The links for one of the films are:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjxOhi6EDNw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aT-g1QwHEQ

If at first we don’t succeed – succeed at the second attempt!

One year ago we worked with Manningham Advice Project in Bradford (giving advice to a largely Asian community) on an application to the Henry Smith Charity. Having got through stage 2 there was the visit – at which point most succeed in getting a grant. We were unsuccessful – due to issues over safeguarding. We didn’t give up! Rachel has worked with the Project for months to refine a new application. We got through to the visit stage – and this time were successful in winning a grant of £198,000 over 3 years – this will really help stabilise the swrvices and support the Project provides.

Phenomenal work with ecoACTIVE on their Buzzline Project application

We’ve had challenges and fun working on a very detailed application to the Heritage Lottery Fund – working closely with ecoACTIVE’s CEO. The Hackney Buzzline is an exciting project aiming to set up a 4 kilometre ‘buzzline’ for bees.The Hackney Buzzline will be a four kilometre ecological corridor extending through and between four east London parks. The parks are all local sites of importance for nature conservation. The corridor will be built by sowing wildflower meadows, planting flower beds and creating ‘stepping-stone’ habitats for pollinators every 100-200 metres along the route. Fingers crossed for this one, please!