Community investment
Pictures courtesy of FoodWorks
We really are Greater Together!
As a profit-for-purpose organisation, Great Places is committed to investing in our communities and helping our customers to live well.
With more of our customers affected by the rising cost of living, last October we launched our Greater Together Foundation. This community-based project is launching initiatives to help people to take control of their household finances.
At the moment, the Foundation is delivering three projects:
House2Home: Helping new customers to sustain their tenancies with household essentials.
Household Assistance Fund: Providing our customers who need it the most with emergency financial support for costs such as fuel, food, white goods and school uniforms.
The Resilience Fund: Community groups can bid to fund projects targeted at helping our customers achieve financial security, through opportunities for work and skills as well as financial wellbeing initiatives.
So far, we’ve invested almost £400,000 through the Resilience Fund, with grants from £1k to £25K, to organisations that can clearly demonstrate their value to our Great Places customers.
25 Dozens of applicants bid for a share of the funds, with requests totalling more than £1.5m. One of the 32 successful community organisations from the latest round of funding was Visit From The Stork in Salford.
Based from the Emmanuel Community Centre, Great Places’ funding will help the organisation to provide support for mothers of young children, along with very low-cost nappies, clothes and toys. In Longsight, South Manchester, Women’s Voices CIC will use its funding to deliver employment and skills support for women from minority ethnic communities.
In Sheffield, FoodWorks (pictured) were successful in bidding for funds to help provide affordable food for families on low incomes, while Sheffield Wednesday’s Community Foundation will deliver activities for older people from the Richmond Park community centre.
