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Grant partners announced through Women’s Urgent Support Fund Round 1

The Smallwood Trust has awarded £1.75 million in new grants across England through Round 1 of the Women’s Urgent Support Fund. The Fund is supported by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK, to respond to the cost-of-living crisis.

Thanks to National Lottery players, 23 organisations will receive funding over three years that will safeguard frontline staff salaries, provide essential items for women at most risk of poverty and cover increased running costs. To meet high demand on the Fund, an additional 8 organisations were awarded a grant through Smallwood’s own funds. 

We’re pleased to share that a total of 31 grants have been awarded.

Who has been funded?

Examples of organisations who have been funded by the Women’s Urgent Support Fund Round 1 include…

Misgav is a specialist organisation led by and for disabled women and their carers. A grant of £60,000 will be used to safeguard food provision and help maintain the organisation’s employment programme to up-skill disabled women and their carers into work. The grant will also support the Misgav’s work boosting the financial resilience of its young volunteers, which includes setting personal development goals and personalised work experience opportunities, which in turn will help safeguard staff roles.

The Magpie Project is a women’s organisation supporting mothers with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) and their children. A grant of £60,000 will be used to uplift the salary of Magpie’s Donations Manager who is on the frontline of supporting women. Funds will also contribute toward essential items for mothers with NRPF that have babies/ children under five. Baby bank running costs will be covered to meet increased demand on this service. This work will be enhanced by broader support around immigration, welfare and housing.

Tavga is a grassroots, by and for community group who work with some of the most marginalised women in Newcastle. A grant of £23,100 will respond to priority needs of refugee and asylum-seeking women through the provision of food parcels, clothing, personal hygiene products and transport and childcare vouchers. The funds will also create a part-time Support Worker role who will facilitate distributions, lead 1-1 support sessions and sustain vital volunteer hours. The funds will also cover the cost of Tavga’s increased rent, utilities and building maintenance.

To see a full list of 31 grant partners, amount awarded and locations please go here.

The Smallwood Trust looks forward to supporting specialist women’s organisations and services over the next 3 years.

About The National Lottery Community Fund

We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name.  

We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK. 

We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives.   

As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to:  

  1. Come together 
  2. Be environmentally sustainable 
  3. Help children and young people thrive 
  4. Enable people to live healthier lives. 

Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute around £500 million a year through 10,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4 billion of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.   

National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £47 billion has been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK – the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district. 

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About the Smallwood Trust

The Smallwood Trust has been helping women across the UK out of poverty for 136 years. Our programmes provide grant funding and support to enable women to become financially resilient and to ensure economic systems work for them rather than against them. Half of the UK population are women – therefore 

our approach not only matters for individual women, enabling them to thrive economically and overcome financially stressful events, it is also critical for the UK economy. While we will continue to meet the immediate needs of women facing financial insecurity, we will also increasingly focus on tackling the systems that cause gendered poverty.

Attached files: 

Full list of Women’s Urgent Support Fund Round 1 grant partners

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