Trust opens £125,000 autumn grant round

Greenham Common Trust launches its autumn grant round today (Thursday, September 2nd) giving £125,000 out to local residents.

Community organisations and charities can apply for grants of between £50 to over £10,000 to help fund Arts, education, recreation and leisure and community projects in West Berkshire and the north-west villages of north Hampshire. The Trust's Distribution Committee has a pot of £65,000 for standard grant applications (£50 to £9,999) and £60,000 for major applications (grants over £10,000).

To increase the amount of funding available to the local community the Local Strategic Partnership West Berkshire Partnership also gives out grants in conjunction with the Trust taking the total funding pot well in excess of £200,000.

A major grant recipient in the last round was St George's Church in Wash Common which was awarded £30,000 from the Trust and £12,500 from West Berkshire Partnership to help make the church the first in the country to run entirely on renewable energy. Local church members raised a staggering £115,000 towards the project. St George's Project Fundraising Manager Tom Linley said "We are very grateful for the tremendous support from the local community. If it wasn't for Greenham Common Trust we would not have been able to generate the extra funding we need to complete the project."

Time Spanner (Projects), is a percussion therapy charity for adults with learning disabilities. It has been a regular beneficiary of Trust grant aid and received £1,200 for core running costs - transport, support work, training workshops and administration and risk assessments in the last round.

Founder member of Time Spanner (Projects) Mark Turauskis said: "The awards from the Greenham Common Trust could not have come at a more critical time for Time Spanners.

"We now live in a time when funding has become a major problem for many community arts associations in the South of England.

"We had come to a point where, only a few months short of our tenth anniversary we were prepared to announce the end of Time Spanner Projects."

The Samaritans of Newbury and West Berkshire were awarded £4,300 to update their crucial training for volunteers.

Director of the local Samaritans branch Helen Rodgers said: "In order to provide our service all volunteers have to undergo a rigorous selection and training programme and the generous grant from Greenham Common Trust will greatly assist with this training. The Samaritans of Newbury and West Berkshire are most grateful to Greenham Common Trust for their ongoing support over the past years."

Greenham Common Trust has given over £13m in community grants since it was created in 1997 which has benefitted local charities and organisations.

Here is how some of the rest of the funding was distributed in the last Trust grant round:

• £14,000 - West Berkshire Citizens Advice Bureau's rural outreach programme
• £10,000 - St Mary's Church, Speen to build a kitchen in the church hall
• £10,000 - local Guides, Scouts and Brownie groups
• £8,000 - local sports clubs
• £7,000 - West Berkshire Alzheimer's Society - to support people with early diagnosis of dementia
• £37,500 - Improve health and well being in the district
• £21,000 - Disability charities
• £23,000 - Arts organisations
• £23,500 - Counselling, advocacy and support organisations

As well as funding important major projects in the district, the Trust also helps smaller organisations such as Ecchinswell Home School Association, which took all 75 pupils from the local primary school to attend a behind-the-scenes trip to the pantomime and workshop thanks to the Trust.

For more information about the Trust's grant aid and to get an application form see the grant aid page or call or email Melissa Elliott on 01635 817445 or melissa@greenham-common-trust.co.uk. The deadline for applications for the autumn round is October 8th, 2010.

For more information about the Trust please contact Julian May at Greenham Common Trust (01635) 817407 or julian@greenham-common-trust.co.uk.