New Grants Awarded: Under-Funded Areas Targeted
We are pleased to announce £800,000 of grants to be awarded to 12 projects across England which aim to support over 3,000 women towards financial independence.
The grants will be distributed over the next two to three years to front-line women’s organisations that, predominantly, have received funding from Smallwood Trust in the past.
The projects are spread across the country with many of them in areas that have been historically under-funded such as Lancashire Women, who work across Blackpool, Burnley, Preston and Accrington.
Emma Crump, Head of Evaluation at the Smallwood Trust said, “It’s really exciting to be able to work with organisations that we have piloted projects with before and help them to scale-up that work over the coming years.”
Another of the organisations to benefit from the award is The Zinthiya Trust, whose previous Smallwood Trust funded project equipped women with the skills to change their relationship with money resulting in a gain of almost half a million in women’s income, over £200,000 of debts managed and over £150,000 of debts written off.
The grants are part of the Smallwood Trust board’s pledge to award up to £2m of funding per year over the next 5 years and supports our strategy to empower front-line women’s organisations to provide women with 1-2-1 support centred on the key drivers of stability, such as: financial independence, housing needs, pathways to employment and mental health and wellbeing.
The grants have been given to:
Lancashire Women (Blackpool, Burnley, Preston, Accrington): Lancashire Women are a well-respected charity with a footpath stretching the span of Lancashire, with a number of locally established centres in Blackpool, Burnley, Preston and Accrington.
Platform Thirty1 (Alfreton, Derbyshire): Delivering creative programmes combining psychology, neuroscience and personal development to invigorate communities of women in ex-coalfield areas in the East Midlands.
Together Women (Yorkshire and Humber): Working with women and girls with complex needs across the North of England providing them with the tools and confidence to live healthier and happier lives.
YSS (West Mercia): YSS provides community-based support services for women, children and families who are vulnerable, have multiple and complex needs and who face difficult life challenges.
Fourth Action (Women’s Workshop) (Amble, Northumberland): Fourth Action aim to address the challenges of living in a rural coastal area with limited opportunity, by focussing on enterprise, working collectively, and on finding more sustainable work through enhanced skills and confidence, and learning with and from one another.
Zinthiya Trust (Leicestershire): Providing a holistic support service to tackle poverty and improve financial literacy of women and girls in and around Leicester.
Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid (Birmingham): Providing financially vulnerable women with resettlement support when they leave the organisation’s refuges.
Sophie Hayes Foundation (Birmingham): Working with hundreds of female survivors of sex trafficking and modern slavery who manage to escape but cannot truly be free until they are independent to secure their own financial futures.
Anawim (Birmingham): Anawim is a women’s centre in Birmingham supporting women with multiple and complex needs including mental health, domestic violence, low income, survival sex work, unemployment, homelessness and involvement with the criminal justice system.
CoLab Exeter (Exeter and Devon): Supporting women with complex and multiple disadvantages, focusing on recovery, belonging, rehabilitation and wellbeing.
Inspire (Southwark, London): delivering a pro-active Parenting Support Programme providing a range of advocacy and practical assistance to financially vulnerable young women.
Timewise (National): helping woman and carers to find better quality flexible and part-time jobs and move out of poverty.
