Past News
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Friends of Hartcliffe Millennium Green
20.08.2008On 14 June Friends of Hartcliffe Millenium Green held a Fun Day on the Millennium Green, Bishport Avenue, Hartcliffe. The event was supported by a donation from the Foundation, made in May of this year. The Fun Day was a great success, with events and attractions including crafts, games, face painting, stone carving, a bouncy castle and trampolines, and animals from Bristol Zoo. The weather was excellent, encouraging around 500 local residents to attend, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
Filton Avenue Junior School - Outdoor Classroom
14.07.2008The Foundation was recently involved in enabling an outdoor classroom at Filton Avenue Junior School to be constructed. The playground shelter was opened last month, and will be used for a range of open air activities, as well as providing shade on summer days.
Gay Elms Primary School - Barton Camp
14.07.2008At the May Trustees’ meeting the Foundation made a donation towards the cost of Gay Elms Primary School residential camp. This took place in June, and it certainly sounds as though the children had a fantastic (though challenging) time at Barton Camp, based in the countryside outside of Bristol. The children were able to experience and participate in a wide range of activities, including mountain biking, archery and outdoor cooking – sausages over a campfire and nettle tea!
Deafblind UK
11.06.2008At the May Trustees’ meeting Deafblind UK received a donation of £5,000 from the Foundation. The donation is towards the costs incurred in supporting elderly deafblind people in Bristol. Loss of both sight and hearing brings problems in many areas of life, including communication, access to information and mobility. Deafblind UK currently supports 10 elderly deafblind people in Bristol, who require varying degrees of support, both human and technical.
Web Site: Deafblind UK
Concorde Wheelchair Dancers
11.06.2008Following the May Trustees’ meeting the Foundation made a donation of £1,000 to Concorde Wheelchair Dancers. The Concorde Wheelchair Dancers are a Bristol dance team with members representing all ages and many disabilities. The group are the reigning Regional 2005 and National 2006 Wheelchair Dance Festival champions, and the Foundation’s donation will help fund the teams attendance at the National Competition in Blackpool this November.
Web Site: Concorde Wheelchair Dancers
Contact a Family
03.06.2008Contact a Family is a national Charity providing advice, information and support to the parents of all disabled children. The charity also enables parents to get in contact with other families whose child has the same condition so they can benefit from their shared experiences and support. At the recent Trustees’ meeting the Foundation made a donation of £1,000 towards the work of Contact a Family within Bristol.
Families of disabled children are under enormous practical, physical and emotional pressures day to day. They may feel isolated because they often don't know anyone else in the same situation. They say the best form of support is that from other parents because they can benefit from their shared experiences and mutual understanding. Contact a Family provides families of disabled children with information and advice on all aspects of raising their child and puts them in contact with each other.
Web Site: Contact a Family
Barton Hill Settlement - The People's Hive
07.04.2008The People’s Hive, based at the Barton Hill Settlement, facilitates community work and volunteering, offers opportunities for the over 50’s, and runs a community time bank. The Foundation recently released its 2008 commitment of £28,072, for use towards The People’s Hive volunteer programme. This programme includes two projects; The Volunteer Unit and Time for Action. The Volunteer Unit matches local people with volunteering opportunities, working with local projects to ensure that volunteers get the support they need. The community time bank, Time for Action, allows people to swap skills to help one another – a diverse range of ‘swaps’ including DIY, gardening, listening and learning an instrument are offered by individuals through the project, enabling them to both benefit from and share with their community.
Web Site: Barton Hill Settlement
Childtime
14.03.2008The Bristol based charity Childtime was awarded a donation of £5,000 at the February Trustees' meeting. Childtime works with emotionally and psychologically distressed children and young people in Bristol and the surrounding areas. The donation provides core-funding for the charity's Open Access Counselling Service and will help them to continue to offer accessible and professional support to children struggling with issues including family breakdown, bereavement, abuse and domestic violence.
Web Site: Childtime
Whizz-Kidz
13.03.2008At the recent Trustees’ meeting, Whizz-Kidz was awarded a donation of £6,000 towards their work in the City of Bristol. The charity provides mobility equipment, training and advice to disabled children and young people. Such equipment is crucial for enabling young disabled people to participate at school, socialise with friends and take part in sports, and allows them an opportunity to develop the skills and confidence to realise their potential.
Web Site: Whizz-Kidz
FareShare South West
12.03.2008In February, the Trustees made a donation of £35,800 towards FareShare South West, the Bristol-based depot which is part of the national food charity, FareShare. There is an enormous imbalance between the amount of consumable food waste produced by the food industry every year, and the millions of people in the UK who are unable to afford a healthy diet. FareShare South West, which is currently in development in Bristol, aims to address this imbalance by redistributing quality surplus food to community groups working with vulnerable individuals. The Foundation’s donation will help fund the cost of the forklift truck and refrigerated delivery vans required by the project. Within the City of Bristol FareShare South West works with groups including Emmaus Bristol, Fairbridge West and Redwood House.
Web Site: FareShare South West
Independent Age
11.03.2008At the February Trustees' meeting the Foundation made a donation of £3,600 towards Independent Age's 'Keep Able Project' in Bristol. Independent Age works with elderly people on very low incomes and currently assists over one hundred elderly people in the City of Bristol. The Foundation's donation to the Keep Able Project will fund 133 Aids for Independence, items such as tap turners, swivel bath seats and low-cost wheelchairs, to help disadvantaged elderly people to maintain their independence and dignity.
Web Site: Independent Age
Harvest Trust
29.02.2008The Harvest Trust provides simple seaside holidays for disadvantaged children who are in real need of a break. In February of this year, the Foundation donated £1,500 towards the cost of taking a group of Bristol children on a Harvest Trust Holiday. The donation covers the approximate cost of a holiday for 12 disadvantaged children from the Knowle area, including accommodation, transport, staffing, admissions for day trips – and the all important holiday ingredient, a couple of rounds of ice-cream!
Web Site: Harvest Trust Holidays for Children
NSPCC - ChildLine
21.12.2007At the most recent Trustees’ meeting the Foundation made a donation of £7,000 to the NSPCC towards the cost of running ChildLine. ChildLine is a free and confidential 24-hour helpline for children in distress or danger. Trained, supervised volunteer counsellors comfort, advise and help protect children and young people who may feel they have nowhere else to turn to. Every day thousands of children call ChildLine, but lack of funds means that only around half of them will get through. The Foundation’s donation will help fund the ChildLine South West centre. Children can also access help online via www.childline.org.uk
Web Site: ChildLine
Victim Support
17.12.2007In November this year the Foundation made a donation of £10,000 towards the ongoing work of the local branch of Victim Support. Last year Victim Support Avonvale worked with over 20,000 victims and witnesses of crime in Bristol. Support is offered by telephone and for those Victims who need it, a visiting volunteer. In addition the charity supports witnesses of crime, prisoners who have been victims of crime themselves, and is also offering specialized services for Bristol’s Somali and Polish communities.
Web Site: Victim Support Avonvale
React
17.12.2007Following the Foundation’s November meeting a donation of £4,000 was made towards the work of React. React, which stands for Rapid Effective Assistance for Children with potentially Terminal illness, aims to improve the quality of life for financially disadvantaged children with life-limiting illnesses. The charity is driven by a belief that every child should have comfort, dignity, and the opportunity to participate in life as fully as possible. React works to achieve this goal by supplying a wide range of equipment from specialist wheelchairs, beds, baths, and mobility aids, to essential everyday items like washing machines and tumble dryers. The Foundation’s donation will fund such items for Bristol children.
Web Site: React
Bristol Samaritans
13.12.2007The Foundation recently made a donation of £3,500 towards the work of the Bristol Samaritans. Samaritans provides confidential non-judgemental emotional support, 24 hours a day for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which could lead to suicide. It costs over £63,590 a year to run the local service, which was contacted by 43,000 people over the past year. The service is staffed entirely by volunteers who provide emotional support on the phone, face to face, by email and by letter.
Web Site: Samaritans - Bristol Branch
Barnardo's Bristol BASE Project
12.12.2007Earlier this month the Foundation made a donation of £23,448 towards the work of Barnardo’s Bristol BASE. The Bristol BASE Project (Barnardo’s Against Sexual Exploitation) works with young people at risk of sexual exploitation or who are being sexually exploited. The project provides a safe environment in which to work with the young people to help them understand their exploitation, promote safety and self-esteem and to raise their aspirations.
Web Site: Barnardo's Bristol BASE Project
The Jessie May Trust
12.12.2007At the start of November a donation of £20,000, representing the second instalment of the Foundation’s three year commitment, was made to The Jessie May Trust. This money is to be used towards funding the Trust’s service of nursing care and respite for children and young people with a terminal illness. The Bristol-based Trust offers a tailor-made, year round service, providing practical and emotional support for the children and their families in their own homes.
Web Site: The Jessie May Trust
Feed the Children UK
12.09.2007At the August meeting the Foundation made a commitment of £14,055 p.a. for 3 years, towards Feed the Children’s Breakfast Club’s within the City of Bristol. Feed the Children works with vulnerable children and their families in communities across the world, in situations of poverty, conflict and famine. Pockets of deprivation mean that, even within the prosperous UK, children are living with poverty, for example 20% of all children in the UK do not get the chance to eat breakfast - affecting their ability to concentrate in school, and leading to disruptive behaviour. Feed The Children’s “Club AM” breakfast clubs help children in areas formally designated by the government as Education Action Zones (EAZ). At “Club AM” children receive a nutritious breakfast that sets them up for the day. All children at the schools may attend; for those children entitled to a free school lunch, there is no charge.
Web Site: Feed the Children
Motability
11.09.2007Motability was founded in 1977 to enable disabled people to enjoy being mobile, by providing a car, powered wheelchair or scooter. At the August Trustees' meeting the Foundation made a donation of £10,200 to Motability, which constitutes one third of the money required to provide this service in Bristol. Improving mobility helps disabled people to live fulfilled lives, with the freedom and independence most can take for granted.
Web Site: Motability
Asthma Relief
10.09.2007At the August meeting the Foundation made a donation of £890 to Asthma Relief. Asthma Relief provides nebulisers to hospitals, doctors’ surgeries and on-call doctors, which can be used to assist people with breathing difficulties in their own homes. The charity also runs a 24 hour helpline giving advice to asthma sufferers, as well as processing applications and arranging free delivery of nebulisers. Nebulisers allow asthmatics to inhale vaporized medication, to bring rapid relief from breathing difficulties. Foundation’s donation covers the cost of 10 nebulisers for use by Bristol residents.
Web Site: Asthma Relief
Institute of Clinical Neurosciences - M.S. Research Group
04.09.2007The Foundation recently made a donation of £45,000 towards the conversion of space in the Burden Neurological Institute into Multiple Sclerosis Stem Cell Labs. The MS Research group, based at Frenchay Hospital, focuses in particular on the underlying biology of multiple sclerosis, in order to develop and test new treatments including adult stem cell therapies. The group's current building work also includes the renovation of the vacated Gial Cell Labs (pictured) into a new MS Clinical Research Centre.
Web Site: Multiple Sclerosis Group
Penny Brohn Cancer Care
13.08.2007In 2006 the Foundation made a commitment of £500,000 to Penny Brohn Cancer Care's 'New Dawn Appeal'. On 18 July 2007 the charity's new centre was officially opened by HRH Prince of Wales. The Foundation's Chairman and Chief Executive were honoured to attend this special event. Penny Brohn Cancer Care (formerly Bristol Cancer Help Centre) supports people with cancer through a variety of courses and complementary therapies including meditation, relaxation, imagery, nutrition and creative therapies - the holistic 'Bristol Approach'. The charity aims to help people with cancer to improve wellbeing and prepare for medical treatment and its side effects, as well as reduce their anxiety and improve quality of life.
Web Site: Penny Brohn Cancer Care
Bristol Old Vic
09.07.2007The Foundation recently pledged £250,000 to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, one of the country’s oldest working theatres. As featured widely in the press, the Bristol Old Vic has announced a start date for the £7 million programme of renovation works. The theatre closes on 1 August 2007 for preparation work for the refurbishment which will include new seating, a new air cooling system, lifting of the stalls floor levels for improved stage visibility and installation of disabled lift access as well as structural repairs. To donate towards the £2 million still required please follow the link to their website.
Web Site: Save Bristol Old Vic
John James Blue Plaque
21.03.2006On 25th July 2006 John James would be 100 years old.
It is fitting therefore that a Blue Plaque was unveiled today on the site of John's birthplace - 96 Philip Street, Bedminster. This is the site now of Windmill Hill City Farm.