Monthly Grants: how small grants are making big changes

Find out more about some of the inspiring projects we’re supporting through our Community Impact and Building Improvement grant programmes:

Community Impact Grants

Pippins Community Centre CIO, Axminster, Devon

In rural Devon, where support for addiction recovery is scarce, Pippins Community Centre stands as a lifeline. The only recovery project in the area, it offers mentoring, workshops, and practical aid like food and clothing to adults struggling with drug and alcohol dependency. With 80% of those exiting treatment unemployed, the centre’s work is vital.

A £4,900 grant will allow staff to extend their hours, helping more people find pathways to recovery and employment.

South Yorkshire Chaplaincy and Listening Service (SYCLS), Sheffield, South Yorkshire

In moments of crisis – grief, burnout or personal hardship - sometimes what people need most is someone who will just listen. SYCLS partners with hospitals, hospices, and emergency services to provide a listening ear and compassionate chaplaincy support. 

The service is committed to remaining a volunteer organisation but recognises that recruiting and training chaplains in sufficient numbers to meet the growing need is impossible.

A £10,000 grant will fund the recruitment and training of two staff chaplains, ensuring more people receive the care they need during life’s toughest moments.

Way Church, Wigan, Lancashire

According to recent statistics, there has been a worrying rise in food insecurity and poor physical and mental health across Wigan. There is a hunger, not just for food, but for wellbeing support.

Way Church is responding with a healthy living outreach project as an expansion to its existing community grocery store. It will deepen the church’s impact by not only providing affordable food to those facing food poverty, but health-based support and spiritual care.

£9,000 Community Impact funding will help to deliver the project, including supporting a new Community Worker role. 

Building Improvement Grants

Go Youth Trust, Falkirk, Stirlingshire

Go Youth has experienced huge growth in recent years, with increasing demand for its youth work services. Whilst this growth is exciting, it has meant the Trust has had to rely on temporary, often unsuitable venues to deliver its work. 

Go Youth recently purchased a disused furniture store in the heart of the community, the perfect base for a new youth space.

With support from a £10,000 Building Improvement Grant, the store will be transformed into a vibrant, fully accessible youth club - complete with heating, insulation, and accessible toilets- offering young people a safe and inspiring place to flourish.

St Mary De Crypt School and Church, Gloucester

Located inside the Sanctuary of St Mary De Crypt Church are a set of unique Tudor wall paintings. All the wall paintings were covered with limewash as part of the Reformation, before being rediscovered in the 1840s. The largest, most intact piece is thought to date back as far as 1530.

A Building Improvement Grant of £6,500 will help to carefully clean and conserve these paintings, allowing the church to share its rich heritage with the wider community.