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ROUND-UP OF SOME OF THE GOOD WORK IN COUNTY
FUNDING of £75,000 has been awarded for disability services run by the charity Sense.
The grant from the Wolfson Foundation will help the charity support more disabled people and families living in the region.
Sense runs a specialist college in Loughborough for young people with complex disabilities aged 16 to 25, offering education and personalised learning to support employment and independent living.
Funding from the foundation will go towards renovating the site later this year.
The college will continue to operate during its development.
Sense chief executive Richard Kramer said: “Sense College in Loughborough offers a range of opportunities for disabled young people to support education, independent living and employment goals.
“The generosity of the Wolfson Foundation will help us extend our provision in the region, by developing a hub that offers pioneering services and programmes that support disabled people, their families and the wider community.”
The hub is expected to benefit 8,000 disabled people, their families and the wider community in the first year of operation.
Over the next five years, Sense will scale up its work in England and Northern Ireland, developing five new hubs in Leicestershire, Leeds, Belfast, Lincolnshire, and Bristol where it has existing services.
LOUGHBOROUGH children’s charity The Youth Sport Trust (YST) is partnering with specialist solar project development company, Ortus Energy, to deliver a nationwide schools programme.
The Youth Leadership Project will use the inspiration and expertise of YST’s established athlete mentors initiative to “empower young leaders to harness the positive power of play and sport to help improve wellbeing, build friendships, and foster better understanding of one another”.
It is aimed at young leaders aged 14 to 16 to help nurture and inspire younger pupils.
Five schools across the UK are participating in workshops this summer, with 15 more schools to join them for a pilot programme running from September to December.
The national roll-out will run next year for a further 230 schools. Ali Oliver, chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Ortus Energy.
“These are extraordinary times for our young people and things have become critical for their health and happiness.
“We live in a world where we are moving less, where digital technology is having an increasing impact on young lives and where children
feel lonely and disconnected. This exciting partnership with Ortus Energy will enable us to empower communities of young leaders who harness the positive power of play and sport to improve well-being, build friendships and foster understanding for their peers.”
Alistair Booth, of Ortus Energy, said: “We’re all about powering change – and change for the better.
“Supporting Youth Sport Trust enables us to demonstrate that commitment.
“Through this collaboration, we also want to help schools become more energy resilient and invest in more positive outcomes – not only for their young people and future leaders through the inclusive power of sport, but a clean, green energy source that will dramatically reduce both fuel costs and their carbon foot- print.”
HOUSEBUILDER Mulberry Homes has donated more than £5,000 to charities across the country from its Community Chest.
Recipients included The Friends of John Wycliffe Primary School PTA in Lutterworth.
Kerry Jones, sales and marketing director at Mulberry Homes, said: “We’re very proud of The Mulberry Community Chest and all the wonderful charities we’ve been able to donate to through the scheme.
“These organisations across the country are doing phenomenal work for a number of incredibly worthwhile causes, and we feel honoured that we’re able to contribute.
TESCO shoppers in Leicestershire have donated items to create 12,617 meals for food banks and frontline charities.
The items collected in Leicestershire between June 30 and July 2 was part of a total of 1.3 million meals donated by Tesco shoppers across the UK in large stores, with an additional 20 per cent top up added by Tesco.
The items of long-life food donated have been shared with food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network and frontline charities supplied with food by FareShare, to help support local people facing hunger.
Shoppers donating cash to the charities by rounding up at the checkouts also gave more than £328,000 during the collection week.
Food collection points can now be found in stores all year round.
FareShare chief executive Lindsay Boswell said: “The UK is facing a cost of living increase which is affecting more and more people.
“FareShare is doing all it can to support charities up and down the UK with food so they can provide vital services to people facing food insecurity during the summer holidays.
“We are immensely grateful to Tesco customers for their generous food and financial donations.”