New grants awarded in collaboration with the Tampon Tax Fund

We are happy to announce £147,000 of grants for 11 new projects across England. The grants are awarded under the Women First Fund that was launched earlier this year and is part funded by the Tampon Tax Fund. The 11 projects have been awarded funding of between £10,000 and £15,000 over 12 months for initiatives that help to build the skills, confidence and aspirations of women on low incomes to enable them to enter into employment.

These include projects supporting women into accredited volunteering programmes, providing business start-up support and advocacy and support groups to women in financial hardship in areas such as Oldham, South Shields, Newcastle and Poole.

The full list of grants awarded is as follows:

A Way out: We are funding the Liberty project with A Way Out, supporting 25 women with complex needs through an outreach, engagement and recovery service in Stockton-on-Tees

Angelou Centre: Working with the Angelou Centre in Newcastle, we will be helping BAME women to access Aspire2Work designed to break down multiple barriers preventing women’s labour market participation in Newcastle

Campaign for Learning: We are working with Campaign for Learning by funding tailored support and an evidence-based programme in money management to help build the financial resilience of 60 women in Rochdale, Manchester

Footprints Project: We are partnering with the Footprints Project to provide holistic, person centred support for female offenders and those at risk of offending in Dorset. Aiming to enable 100 women to reach their potential

Inspire Women Oldham: We are funding Inspire Women Oldham to continue their capacity building sessions for women to become facilitators in their member-led centre in Oldham and become part of enabling that change in other women

Preston Road Women’s Centre: We are funding Preston Road Women’s Centre to support 150 women to become financially resilient and enter work through their innovative Women Winning Through project with wrap around services including work placements and tenancy support in Hull

Support and Mentoring Enabling Entrepreneurship: We are funding tailored business start-up support for women with disabilities in Boscombe

Time to Change: We are supporting Time to Change to run West Cumbria’s first women’s centre. The centre provides a safe space for women to vital access services under one roof including a Credit Union, drug and alcohol service and housing options team based at Whitehaven

Venus Working Creatively with Young Women: We are funding Venus Working Creatively with Young Women to support 50 women in Bootle at 3 different points in their journey to financial resilience: crisis; building skills and accessing employment

Women’s Health In South Tyneside: We are funding Women’s Health in South Tyneside to run group advocacy and support services to women in financial hardship alongside practical sessions to help women move towards financial resilience in South Shields

And finally; Womenzone Community centre: We are funding Womenzone Community Centre in Bradford in their work supporting 30 women surviving abuse into employment

In total the new funding will help projects to reach an additional 950 women.

Paul Carbury, CEO at The Smallwood Trust said, “We are excited by the new projects we have funded and look forward to working together. Part of the grant offer includes training in the Outcomes Star methodology and a series of workshops on best practice”.