The funding comes as part of Bristol’s City Funds latest grant programme.
City Funds will be distributing a total of £1.35m in grant funding for health and wellbeing in 2021, thanks to a Quartet Community Foundation-managed fund, created by Bristol Community Health, as part of its legacy to community health in Bristol.
Bristol’s City Funds is a partnership between Quartet Community Foundation, Bristol & Bath Regional Capital and Bristol City Council and was set up to solve some of the biggest challenges facing the city through a combination of grant funding and social investment.
Knowle West Bike Club
One of the projects to be supported is Grassroot Communities community-led Knowle West Bike Club, which will promote healthy lifestyles among children and young people in the area.
Photo: Grassroot Communities
“I was over the moon when I heard that the Knowle Bike Club has been funded.
Lockdown has been difficult for everyone and when the young people on Newquay Rd and the wider community hear that we will be able to support them with their project idea, they will have something to look forward to!”
Grassroot Communities founder and youth worker, Ben Carpenter.
Bluebell Care Trust
Grant recipient, Ruth Jackson, Chief Executive of Bluebell Care Trust – a Bristol charity which helps support families manage their mental health and wellbeing during pregnancy and after birth – said:
“The Bluebell Care Trust is delighted to have been awarded a grant of £20,000, over two years from the Bristol Community Health – Health & Wellbeing Grant Programme to increase and improve the reach and equity of Bluebell’s services to enable better access and support for perinatal mental health for mothers and their families from Bristol’s Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities.”
Photo: Bluebell Care Trust
“We are excited to be able to start this work and committed to ensuring our services are meeting the needs of all women and their families who need them.”
Ruth Jackson, Chief Executive of Bluebell Care Trust.
Autism Independence
Autism Independence received a grant of £39,700 to support people caring for a family member with Autism, who have been hit hard by the pandemic.
Photo: Autism Independence
“Not knowing where to go for help or what autism is, as a parent of a child with autism is hard. Often these kids miss early intervention because of the language, system and cultural barriers their parents face. This award helps us bridge the gap between disadvantaged families living with autism and service provides that lack cultural barriers.
This award helps us to achieve our objectives to ensure that there is equal access and inclusive services for every child and their families.”
Founder of Autism Independence, Nura Aabe.
inHope
Stuart Leitch, Life Recovery Manager at inHope , a charity supporting some of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in Bristol said:
Photo: inHope
“inHope were delighted to receive funding from City Funds to support the development of the Life Recovery Project. The grant gives inHope the capacity and resource to train 12 partner organisations to support 200 people in their recovery from addiction, trauma and poor mental health. The funding will also be used to develop online resources, including training films, blogs and a discussion forum – all with the aim of increasing the number of people equipped to support long lasting recovery.”
Stuart Leitch, inHope Life Recovery Manager.
Mind Your Music
Mind Your Music have received £20,000 in grant funding to run weekly music workshops for people struggling with mental health difficulties in the Bristol area.
Photo: Mind Your Music
“It feels like a weight has been taken off our shoulders and our project leaders can breathe again and do what they do best, which is help change lives through music. This grant will mean we can continue to provide music workshops for people suffering from mental health difficulties for the next two years. The news of our funding is a cause of celebration both for us and the vulnerable people that use our project.”
Mind Your Music founder, Elliot Hall.
Redcatch Community Garden
Redcatch Community Garden received a grant of £8,100.00 towards improving the health and wellbeing of local people.
Photo: Redcatch Community Garden
“We are delighted and grateful to receive funding. We plan to use it to fund engaging with, learning from, and partnering with local organisations. This will enable us to provide more sessions and activities for those most in need in our community.”
Co-founder of Redcatch Community Garden, Kate Swain.
Young Bristol
Young Bristol have received grant funding for a project to support older people in the Stockwood area.
“Young Bristol are absolutely thrilled to receive this funding. This will allow us to set up and run a brand new ‘Walking Football’ community project in the Stockwood area of Bristol, benefitting those aged 55+.”
Photo: Young Bristol
“Through our new programme older people can be more active, can come together to socialise, meet new friends, improve their wellbeing and enjoy regular exercise.”
Lucy Saunders, Development & Fundraising Manager, Young Bristol.
Centre for Sustainable Energy
Charity, Centre for Sustainable Energy received grant funding toward the co-designing of warm homes support services for multi-generational South Asian households in Bristol, through focused research and engagement to understand context, needs, priorities and ways to enable uptake.
Working with Dhek Bhal – a Bristol based charity who passionately believe that everyone in the South Asian community has the right to quality services to meet individual needs, CSE will undertake research to help them understand how they can tailor their advice offer to best support multi-generational households, including amongst Bristol’s South Asian community, to avoid the harm caused by living in a cold home.
Photo: Centre for Sustainable Energy
“This is a really exciting project to be involved in. We hope that by working with the Dhek Bhal and engaging with the community directly, we will be able to help more people in fuel poverty. This will help us ensure that no one has to live in a cold home.”
Project Manager at CSE, Nicky Hodges.
ACH
ACH have received a grant towards delivering the Advocating for Myself programme. The part-course, part-peer support group will combine Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based exercises with a focus on improving self-awareness and wellbeing life skills, aiming to improve mental health, resilience, advocacy skills and personal agency of refugees in Bristol.
Photo: ACH.
“ACH is delighted to find out our Advocating for Myself course received the Health and Wellbeing Grant. The course will empower people from a refugee background, using fun teamwork, gratitude and resilience activities. We hope this will increase confidence, happiness and integration in the communities we work with.”
Megan Coakeley, ACH Support & Integration Officer.
One25
The grant awarded to One25 will be used to continue and expand the Peony service for women facing multiple disadvantages, helping them break free from trauma by providing peer support and access to activities, training and employment.
Photo: One25
“We are absolutely thrilled here at One25 to have been awarded a grant from Bristol Community Health, City Funds. The funds will be going towards One25’s Peony service, which is for women who have experienced multiple disadvantage such as trauma, addiction and violence. The grant will allow Peony to deliver wellbeing and skills activities as well as one-to-one support, helping us to be there for women on their individual journeys to recovery.”
Amy Sutcliffe, Fundraising and Communications Manager, One25.
Many Minds
The mental health and performance charity, Many Minds received grant funding from City Funds.
“We at Many Minds are excited to find our project was selected for funding from City Funds. Over the past year, more and more people have been coming to our workshops and making performances with us and we have experienced a growing need for people with experiences of mental health to have a creative outlet and a way to connect, even if it has been through our screens.”
Photo: Many Minds
“We have ambitious plans to reach more people and make larger scale performances over the next few years and this fund will give us the opportunity to have time to put the right structures and strategies in place to make that happen and make the arts more accessible and diverse.”
Olivia Ware, Director and Co-founder, Many Minds.
Womankind
Womankind, which supports women in the Bristol area, received a grant towards their Befriending service, providing isolated women with enduring mental health issues with a volunteer befriender, to provide support to improve their mental health & wellbeing.
Photo: Womankind
“I am delighted that Womankind’s Befriending service has been awarded funding which will enable us to support more isolated women who are struggling with their mental health.
We know from running the service that befriending helps individuals to build on their strengths, abilities and networks thereby increasing their sense of belonging within their community. In addition, regular support from a volunteer befriender helps women through the isolation and anxiety engendered by the pandemic.”
Kyra Bond, CEO, Womankind.
Free Your Instinct
Free Your Instinct is a young and dynamic charity that helps people with mental health support needs through the delivery of specialist Parkour classes by qualified and experienced coaches.
Parkour is an exciting sport which involves negotiating obstacles, typically in an urban environment, by running, jumping and climbing. It offers every benefit of physical activity but also challenge participants to develop mental strength, social skills, resilience, confidence and problem solving skills, leading to improved mental health.
The £39,100 grant received from the City Funds Health & Wellbeing programme will cover the cost of employing a part time employee to coordinate and develop their activities with the aim of being able to expand their services and sustain a set of core activities in
Bristol.
Photo: Free Your Instinct
“We are very excited to have received this grant and we are extremely grateful for this support without which our project would not be possible. It will help us hugely in transforming and expanding our delivery of Parkour courses in the Bristol area for people with mental health support needs who may feel isolated in the community.”
Charlotte Boenigk, Founder & CEO, Free Your Instinct.
Groundwork South
Groundwork South received a grant of £37,354 to support growing wellbeing needs within the Lockleaze area of Bristol, with an ambition to have a transformable impact on access to mental health services for the most vulnerable, disadvantaged and socially excluded local residents.
This project aims to be a cornerstone for the future development of early intervention mental wellbeing services, based at the community centre, The Vench.
“Our vision at The Vench is that all children and young people in Lockleaze live happy and healthy lives. As part of our work to achieve that, we support families to build their resilience, to date this work has focused on food resilience and employment. However, the children, young people and families we support have experienced significant impacts on their mental health and wellbeing as a result of the pandemic.”
Photo: The Vench, Groundwork South
“In 2020, we began piloting wellbeing initiatives, including the Walk & Talk project for Lockleaze mums and a Gardening for Wellbeing group.
Thanks to this funding from the Bristol Community Health Fund we can employ a Wellbeing Facilitator to look strategically at how we expand our resilience work to include mental health & wellbeing to support our community to thrive in a post-COVID world.”
Amy Walsh, Centre Manager at The Vench – Lockleaze Adventure Playground & Community Centre, Groundwork South.
Age UK Bristol
Age UK Bristol have been awarded grant funding towards the Walk More Bristol project for older people.
Photo: Age UK Bristol
“Active Ageing Bristol, hosted by Age UK Bristol, is delighted to receive this grant from City Funds. It will enable us to work with local communities and partners to increase the levels of physical activity and wellbeing of people aged 55+ in Bristol by inspiring and enabling them to walk more.’’
Karen Lloyd, Age UK Bristol, Active Ageing Bristol Manager.
Avon Wildlife Trust
Avon Wildlife Trust will benefit from Bristol City Funds BCH grant funding towards their Wellbeing with Nature – Recovery & Resilience Programme, providing structured green care interventions that support people to connect with nature and move on with the coping
strategies that they need to self-manage their own wellbeing.
Photo: Avon Wildlife Trust
“I am delighted that Avon Wildlife Trust have been chosen as one of the projects to receive funding. Wellbeing with Nature – recovery and resilience project will enable people to take part in outdoor self-care courses. Our structured wellbeing interventions will help people connect to nature and support them to develop their own coping strategies to self-manage their wellbeing. The sessions will also enable a greater awareness of the value of nature for our health and wellbeing and promote pro-conservation behaviours.”
Kelly Bray, Wellbeing with Nature Project Manager, Avon Wildlife Trust.
The grants will go towards funding a wide range of projects which will benefit
- Children and young people
- Women
- Older people
- Disabled people
- Refugees / asylum seekers / immigrants
- People with drug and alcohol addictions
- Bristol’s Black Asian and Minority Ethnic communities
- People suffering from mental health issues.
“City Funds is committed to funding projects that will make a lasting change in Bristol.
We are delighted to be able to award grants to these 20 organisations, which will benefit some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and support Bristol’s health and wellbeing sector.
Andy Street, Chair of City Funds.
The full list of 20 funded projects across Bristol can be found here:
Bristol City Funds Health and Wellbeing Grants approved in first round – Feb 2021
To help with the programme, City Funds enlisted the expertise of The Care Forum, the lead umbrella organisation in Health and Social Care across the South West of England, to recruit 5 volunteers with lived experience from their networks to be involved in the decision-making process as to where the funding will be best spent.
The City Funds – Bristol Community Health grant programme aims to run three times per year until the available funding has been distributed. Applications for the second round will open again on 23rd March, 2021.
More information can be found from the Quartet Community Foundation website here: https://quartetcf.org.uk/grant-programmes/bch/
To find out more about how you can support / get involved in the work City Funds, please visit: https://bristolcityfunds.co.uk/support-us/
For further information contact:
Phoebe Fenton, Marketing and Communications Officer,
Bristol City Funds
Mob: 0755 303 0189
phoebe.fenton@quartetcf.org.uk
About City Funds
City Funds is working to transform Bristol by funding solutions that target the causes and effects of inequality. A partnership between Quartet Community Foundation, Bristol & Bath Regional Capital and Bristol City Council, City Funds uses its £10 million investment fund and aligned grants to strengthen organisations solving some of the biggest challenges facing Bristol.