Dymock Cricket Club was awarded £1000 to purchase a new mower.

Cheltenham Sea Cadets received a combined grant of £8717 to cover the costs of a new galley kitchen and bathrooms in their new building, so that groups can stay overnight – for some young people it will be their first time away from home.

Guiting Power Playgroup needed a small grant with which to purchase new play equipment. A grant of £1800 was awarded.

Sling and District Recreational Club – was awarded £4500 towards installation of new kitchen facilities, so that the club can expand its hiring facility to more local groups.

Dolly Girls from Cheltenham is a dance troupe that teaches pom pom and baton routines to children, aged 4 and over, from the disadvantaged Whaddon area of Cheltenham, with the aim of increasing fitness, sportsmanship and friendship. A grant of £2500 will cover the cost of providing members with new costumes and transport.

St Marks Junior Football Team received £2523 set up costs from the Tony Neather Trust. The club had identified a gap in provision for players aged 16, who are too old to continue in the junior team but not physically strong enough to compete in an adult team; the funding will help establish a league team for this age group living in the St Marks and Hesters Way areas of Cheltenham, so they can continue to train and play weekend matches.

Care and Repair (Stroud) received £3960 for their Helping Hands project, which provides older people in the Stroud area with access to security checked domestic helpers, so that they receive the extra bit of help to stay independent in their own homes.

St Peter’s Under 5s pre-school group provides playgroup, toddler and early years day care sessions for local in the Gloucester city centre area. Having moved on to new premises in September 2006, the group has been steadily clearing an overgrown outside area to form a safe & secure play area for the children. They were awarded £5000 to complete this work.

The Meet Community Youth Group provides a 5 day a week drop-in for young people living in rural Blakeney, Forest of Dean, and received a grant of £2091 for renovation work to expand the venue into an upper room, and to equip this, to accommodate growing numbers of attendees. The Meet offers young people creative opportunities, community projects and positive experiences that increase self-esteem, work experience and aims to reduce anti-social behaviour in the village.

Tewkesbury Rugby Football Club received a grant of £3000 towards furnishing their community room and fitting out a new kitchen, following a building extension to the club. The main aim of this successful club is to provide and promote the game of rugby and sport in the community and has 3 active senior men’s teams, a ladies team, a development side and works closely with local schools teams. Club facilities are opened to other local community sports clubs.

Prestbury and Pittville Youth (PPY) has been awarded £2564 for purchase of two laptop computers. This equipment is essential for participants of PPY’s innovative personal development project, to maintain a daily log of their activities and achievements on challenge modules and for core activities of the programme such as planning, researching and problem solving. The young people, aged between 14 and 16, who are part of this programme have multiple needs and disadvantages and are developing individual evidence portfolios for two accredited programmes – ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network) and CoPE (Certificate of Personal Effectiveness).

The Ferndale Social Flying Club is a small pigeon racing club which enjoys membership from all ages in the community (current members range in age between 9 and 82), and as such reduces intergenerational barriers and social exclusion. The group required funding to replace heavy and unmanageable manual clocks with electronic timing systems for the racing pigeons. The grant award of £2770 fell short of their full requirement but the group is being supported to further develop its management systems and policies to enable a Grassroots Grant application to be submitted, which would complete their funding package.

CANDI (Cinderford Area Neighbourhood Development Initiative) received a grant of £10,000 to cover the cost of delivering popular music workshops and sessions for young people living in Cinderford and the village of Drybrook, Forest of Dean, as well as weekly dance sessions in the same rural communities. CANDI is a well established community youth charity working with the 11- 25 age group in disadvantaged rural areas around Cinderford, providing youth cafe drop-ins, a young people’s information shop and young parents support group, as well as having a record of encouraging young people’s personal and leadership development and community action.

The Furniture Recycling Project received a grant of £8100 to cover the cost of extending their low cost furniture recycling service into the Forest of Dean. This countywide organisation works to overcome hardship and social exclusion through the provision renovated/repaired unwanted furniture and household goods at low cost to low income families. These households are often living in poverty, with limited access to secure, safe and clean furniture and include families claiming benefits, people with disabilities, with mental health problems, with drug/alcohol abuse issues, people leaving prison or newly housed families. A particular need was identified to increase deliveries into disadvantaged households in the Forest of Dean, particularly Lydney, Cinderford and Coleford – two of these wards being in the top 10% nationally of multiple deprivation index.

Toddington Village Hall, is an exemplar new build community facility, fully incorporating sustainable energy measures and providing for a wide range of sports and keep fit activities, meeting rooms for activities for all generations and interests of user groups and will bring greater social cohesion to this rural community. The building is scheduled for completion in February 2009 and the Foundation’s grant of £9520 will purchase the hall’s new chairs and staging blocks, plus associated transport trolleys.

The GEAR project provides much needed facilities for the homeless community of Gloucester; these include a night-shelter, day centre, health clinic and dry houses. The grant award of £1500 will enable urgent upgrading of the emergency lighting at the night-shelter, as well as some essential ancillary electrical work.

Fair Shares Gloucestershire ‘aims to create strong, healthy communities with self-empowered people’ through ‘time banking’. Time banking enables people and organisations to share their skills, knowledge and resources with others in their community – every hour of time spent providing help to someone in the community is credited ad can then be spent getting help I return. The Foundation’s grant of £3291 is a contribution towards establishing a new network of support for families with disabled children, providing practical help on a day to day basis. A new project worker will be employed to raise awareness of time bank opportunities and a peer support network for families will be established through the time bank, providing advice, support, information, advice and practical help.

The Door Youth Project, based in Stroud, has received a grant of £4000 with which to employ an art tutor, as part of the project’s skills and personal development tutoring for disadvantaged or alienated young people. The Door project benefits young people aged 11 to 25 years whose social, emotional and learning needs are addressed through provision of a coffee bar, mentoring and counselling services, drugs support and the ‘Tranzform Training’, offering training in craft, design, music, sport and woodwork.

The Spring Centre provides care and support to children and young people with disabilities and special needs throughout Gloucestershire. Services include respite, after school clubs, toddler sessions and a full range of holiday activities, as well as specific help and support for parents and siblings through family sessions and holistic therapies. The grant of £6173 will enable the Spring Centre to extend its provision by running weekly Saturday respite sessions, which have been requested by parents and which were successfully piloted over five sessions.

Fairgame Theatre, based at Cheltenham’s Everyman Theatre, ‘uses the arts to inspire and entertain, working in community settings predominantly with young people’. The Foundation’s grant of £2500 is a contribution towards the cost of making a short film with young men who are at risk of offending, exploring the themes of power struggles and use of violence with the expected outcomes of increased self-esteem and confidence and reduced anti-social or offending behaviour.

The Meadows Toy and Leisure Library provides toys and equipment for families with at least one child with disabilities aged 0 -19. It serves 60 member families from the southern part of the county, as well as providing for special schools and playgroups; the organisation also offers ancillary services such as subsidised trips and outings for member families, advocacy and information. The Library is in the process of integrating with SNAP (Special Needs and Parents Group) and of relocating the library to the Children’s Centre in Stroud; these developments will enable access to specialist, properly integrated, on-site services, as well as the toy library being accommodated in a safe and secure environment for the children, which is lacking at present. The Grant of £5000 will employ a part time development worker to manage and progress these changes.

Teens in Crisis provides counselling and therapeutic activities to emotionally and psychologically damaged young people aged 9 – 21 years, their families and carers; these young people suffer with a range of problems due to physical, sexual and emotional abuse, family and relationship breakdown, bereavement, bullying, self-harm, anger management or sexuality issues, poor self-esteem, depression, anxiety or obsessive disorders. Work is delivered on a one-to-one basis, in groups and with families. The Foundation’s grant of £7070 will fund 200 free counselling sessions in the Forest of Dean, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury.

The Burysed Youth & Community Group is based in the under-resourced and once troubled Sedbury area, in the far south of the Forest of Dean. The project provides a community and young people’s drop-in centre, offering support and advice to all members of the community, a range of participation opportunities for young people and inter-generational community activities. A multi-agency approach in the community has seen a 73% reduction of anti-social behaviour in a twelve month period. The Foundation’s grant of £2500, matched by £2500 from the High Sheriff’s Fund, is towards the project’s ongoing revenue costs and planned employment of a part time project co-ordinator.

Gloucestershire Dance works to increase the quality, diversity and amount of dance activity taking place across the county, with a focus on contemporary and inclusive practice. The grant award of £9214 (50% contribution each from the Foundation and from the High sheriff’s Fund) is towards development of a diverse programme of work, piloted in three projects, that will reach out to more marginalised young people – those who have been, or are risk of being, excluded from mainstream school or who are at risk of becoming involved in anti-social or offending behaviour.

Sport Relief grants awarded in 2008:

Mitcheldean Junior Football Club received £4323 from Sport Relief to set up a disability section of the club, to be known as the ‘Ability Counts’ section. They hope to be able to form a full team of players with disabilities – the first in Gloucestershire – and to play matches against similar teams from other counties.

Young Anglers Project, based in the Forest of Dean, was awarded £3930 to enable them to buy in training time, purchase angling equipment and upgrade its website. The project has evidence that their work, based around fishing courses, with young people has helped to reduce anti-social behaviour, truancy and exclusions from school.

Longhope Short Mat Bowling Club was awarded £2155 with which to purchase new bowling mats, two sets of bowls, score boards and rubber mats. This new equipment will enable the club to start taking part in local competitive events.

Tewkesbury Tigers – a very active youth rugby club – wanted to increase its members by offering a more community-wide approach and a greater variety of training sessions. A £3779.80 Sport Relief grant will help the club to become more inclusive.

Corse & Staunton Cricket Club – A Sport Relief grant of £7788 will go towards purchase of portable wicket covers and a fenced storage area, which will double up as a practice area for youth teams.