More than 30 community groups across Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Stockport and Tameside received a significant uplift through the backing of Locala Health and Wellbeing's Community Fund 2023/2024.
Nearly £43,000 was granted from Locala's Community Fund, which is an integral part of their work as a not-for-profit social enterprise. The fund works to ensure any surpluses are invested back into services or into community projects.
Full details of the community organisations that received funding can be seen below:
Blossoms CIC
To equip young female with the knowledge and confidence to transition into secondary schools making the right choices and having a good awareness of things they may well be faced with in teenage life.
Shoulder2Shoulder Non-Profit Community Group
The Centre completes valuable Youth sessions which positively impact the local community; a Boxing Club which provides non-contact training for all; and a volunteer led Community Café (Café South) which provides free breakfasts for pupils before school in a safe and warm space. Our aim is to continue to support the deprived inner-city community.
Connect the Dots Community/Voluntary Group
A social activity centre for adults (18+) with learning disabilities and autism. The organisation was developed in collaboration with members and parents, and we have established a safe space for people to take part in a wide range of activities, make new friends and belong. Our mission is to help people with learning disabilities and autism lead happy, independent, and fulfilling lives.
Keighley Pride incorporating Ilkley Pride Community Interest Group
Ilkley & Keighley Pride’s mission is to promote, increase awareness, educate, inform, and support the LGBTQ+ community, their friends, and allies in the wider communities of Keighley, Airedale, Wharfedale, Ilkley and the Worth Valley; to celebrate and encourage acceptance, tolerance, equality and diversity of the LGBTQ community values; and to increase the local Pride feel amongst LGBTQ+ people and the wider community.
Saif Space CIC
Saif Space was established by Saif Khan, a retired police officer after he witnessed high levels of anti-social behaviour in his community. It transpired that young people were going to school hungry and unable to concentrate on lessons, hunger led to frustration and negative behaviour. And so, Saif Space Café South was established.
Calderdale Valley of Sanctuary Independent Charity
Our mission is to create a culture of welcome towards people who seek sanctuary in Calderdale. In addition to running one-off projects directly with and for people seeking sanctuary, we also administer Sanctuary awards for local organisations, organise Refugee Week activities and provide our member organisations and individual supporters with training, resources and networking opportunities.
Grassroots Family CIC
Most of our work has been tackling the cost-of-living crisis in our village and offering warm space winter support. We have also been able to respond to need and request that was ascertained at our community coffee morning by providing a menopause support group, digital drop in, community wellbeing walks and tai chi classes together with a warm lunch, winter care packs and community pantry.
IMT Forever CIC
Supports and invests in local communities to improve physical and mental wellbeing. We offer a regular timetable of bespoke, fun, accessible and inclusive classes in Calderdale, generally aimed at older adults using exercise, movement, dance, and music and incorporating the 5 ways of wellbeing model.
Spotlight Faith Group Community Group
Our primary aim is to ensure everyone experiences happiness and lives their best life, guided by principles of dignity, love, support, and peace within the community. We are committed to breaking barriers for asylum seekers and refugees, facilitating settlement to promote integration.
Auntie Pam’s Not for Profit Group
Auntie Pam’s is service user-led and has at its heart the women and families of Kirklees. We support women, their partners, and their families during pregnancy and the first years of becoming a parent. A peer support volunteer run service we provide a range of services, including a drop-in information and signposting service (covering things like housing, benefits, domestic violence, healthy eating, mental health, breastfeeding, infant massage, stopping smoking and baby/child development).
Callaloo Community Arts Constituted Community Group
Callaloo Community Arts is a disabled-led creative wellbeing organisation. We make Carnival and Parade Art, and we produce Parades, collaboration with various groups, at first as volunteers then developing our knowledge & skills over time and becoming more professional.
Headway Huddersfield and District Community Voluntary Group
Support brain injury survivors, their carers and families across Kirklees and Calderdale. We are a community and Disability Support group where people with brain injuries are valued, respected, and supported to fulfil their potential.
Honeyzz Diabetes Support Group Community Voluntary Group
Honeyzz aims to engage and educate our diabetes community by ways of raising awareness of these prevalent conditions, providing our diabetes community with the toolkit of knowledge, and understanding, confidence, and resilience to manage their condition, rather than suffering from it. Honeyzz provides self-help and support to community members living with diabetes, their carers and anyone with an interest in diabetes. Honeyzz is made up of volunteers and members predominately, but not exclusively, from the older African, Caribbean, and emerging communities who meet, share and learn from each other’s’ experiences of diabetes.
Loving Hands Outreach Team Charitable Incorporated Organisation
Loving Hands Outreach Team are providing an essential food parcel delivery service, to those in poverty or at risk of being in poverty in the Dewsbury, Batley, Heckmondwike and Liversedge areas. We also provide some help and support to those needing help accessing services regarding their health and well-being and are a friendly face at the door to those isolated or lonely. Our main focus is to boost the quantity of fresh produce offered in our food bags, thereby helping people to eat more healthily. We provide lots of fresh fruit, veg, yoghurts, eggs, healthier cereals, and porridge, ensuring our families with younger children can give them a good start to the day.
New Direction Services Community Interest Company
Our mission is to provide a safe space that is accessible to all people from all walks of life. To support those in refuge or surviving domestic violence. To promote equality and diversity in our communities, encouraging social cohesion and developing positive relationships within communities. We believe that social activities should be for everyone and attendance to activities should be a true representation of all living within the community. We seek only to create a better world, a fairer world where individual human rights are respected and upheld and where different communities work together for a better, fulfilling, and hopeful future.
Ravensthorpe with Hopton UR Church Community Interest Company
Community working in tandem with the church to support members of the local community in all aspects of life and difficulties they may be facing.
Reinwood Infants and Nursery School
Reinwood Infant and Nursery School has been nurturing and educating generations of children aged 3-7 years old in the local community for the last 60 years. Our school motto is we always say "I can" and this is something we whole heartedly believe in along with our school values of kindness, honesty, safety and resilience.
Sensory World Community Interest Company
Sensory World is a multi-Sensory Play Centre for those with additional needs. We have organised Clubs and Groups that off support that is on the spectrum of Autism/ADHD
Spen Sheds Community Group
The Spen Sheds offers its members a place away from day-to-day problems. Where they can if they wish, just sit with a drink (tea or coffee) and have a friendly chat and make new friends. We have many different activities such as woodworking, card crafting, knitting/sewing and many other activities leading to mental stimulation for everyone.
The Heads-Up Choir Voluntary Community Group
The Heads-Up Choir provides a space for those living with dementia and their carers to meet with others and sing! It is proven that singing helps with the feeling of achievement, wellbeing, and reminiscence. The choir is run by volunteers. The choir funds a musical director who provides the music for the group and leads a range of activities to aid cognitive function. These include physical exercises and communal singing. Refreshments and homemade cake are provided by the volunteers who also contribute financially.
Carrbrook Community Hub Constituted Community Group
To provide a range of activities for all ages especially the elderly and disabled. There is no provision in the area and people are lonely /isolated. The group has grown phenomenally along with the activities. These include tea/toast session’s, armchair aerobics, bingo, fortnightly breakfast, and the only Sign Language Class in the area which has been a huge success with people wanting to understand more about this disability.
Denton Westend Community Library Community Library
We are a community run charity library and community hub in Denton. We are wholly owned and run by the Community, reliant on volunteers, goodwill, and donations to continue running. We are here to encourage, nurture and assist in the personal development of all members of the Community in 'learning' as a leisure activity. To improve the lives of the residents of Tameside, in a common effort to provide opportunities for social involvement and welfare.
Dukinfield Patient Network Constituted Community Group
Dukinfield Patient Network Group is a committee led group of volunteers who aim to enhance the patient experience and engage with residents from the wider community in Tameside through weekly activities: Winter tea party for the lonely and vulnerable, craft workshops, baby bundle group, knitting and crochet. We have organised a health event which we have invited local health and social providers.
Hattersley Big Community Garden Project Community Interest Company
Hattersley is in the highest 5% on the Index of Multiple Deprivation. Our aim is to create a welcoming space, where everyone feels safe, is valued, and is supported. We do this by offering: A Community Cafe, where the senior citizens can enjoy a coffee, cake, and a friendly face, free of charge. Therefore, reducing social isolation. The community can also enjoy this service for the small charge of £1. We offer raised community beds where our army of volunteers grow produce for the local community to access free of charge. We are a safe environment for people to come and join in with any of the activities in a non-judgemental way. We offer crafting and growing clubs for the children in the school holidays free of charge.
Mentell Independent Charity
Mentell is a national charity that provides circles for men aged 18+ to talk in a safe and confidential space, free from advice and judgement. We are a peer support charity that aims to the change the stigma around men’s mental health, hopefully contributing to the much-needed reduction in the number of male suicides, which is the biggest killer of men under the age of 50. We provide local face to face circles on a Monday evening in Stockport and other areas. We also provide our service online to members who are unable to attend the face-to-face service for various reasons. We are a free self-referral service. We have no waiting lists.
Places of Welcome Community Volunteer Group
We offer a welcoming atmosphere every Thursday from 10.00am to have a chat, catch-up and have a cup of tea or coffee. As well as a lunch club, Tia Chi, armchair exercises, bingo, quizzes, and other various events throughout the year. This helps reduce isolation, which helps with mental health, for local older residents but anyone is welcome from across the Borough.
Shree Ram Mandir/Shree Jalaram Bhajan Mandal Charity Community Centre
Ram Mandir is built upon the connection of its community; the foundation has always been bringing people together. We have a rich history of offering various supportive services to members of our local community, from all religious faiths and backgrounds. Post pandemic there has been a real focus of health and well-being. We have a volunteer that runs Yoga sessions, the interest for the sessions has been overwhelming.
Real Rock Radio Not for Profit
We set up to offer an alternative to mainstream radio, in the shape of being not for profit, online radio station, giving access to new talent . i.e. new bands that can’t get airtime and offering opportunity to anyone train as a volunteer presenter and give listeners the opportunity to hear different tracks by more popular groups.
Reddish Men in Sheds Community Associated with Charitable Purpose
Reddish Men in Sheds (RMiS) a group of (mainly) older men who meet three afternoons each week to service and repair donated old bicycles. We sell these bicycles onto the community via a local charity shop (Re:Dish) or direct sales. They are sold at modest prices to ensure that as many people as possible can access cycling regardless of income. We also give our children's bikes to a local school at Christmas and summer holiday times to enable some children to have their very own bike who would not otherwise get an opportunity to cycle. We prevent a lot of old bikes from going to waste or landfill.
Self-Care Creatives Community Interest Company
Self-Care Creatives was founded in March 2023 to improve mental health, wellbeing & build stronger community spirit through creative activities. We upskill participants in mindful wellbeing practices such as journaling, embroidery, and vision board techniques. Our services have been oversubscribed (often with a waiting list) and we have had fantastic feedback from participants as shown from the participants quotes in this application. Self-Care Creatives has proudly supported 1000+ people in our founding 11 months.
Stalybridge Town Team Community Voluntary Group
A non-political volunteer community group formed in 2012, our executive committee is made up of residents, shop owners, faith groups and local councillors. We meet every month in Stalybridge town centre to discuss and review our plans to improve Stalybridge town centre. Our aim is to promote the social, cultural, and environmental regeneration of Stalybridge. We have a database of approximately 80 volunteers, whom we email regularly about our activities, we support any initiative contributing to sense of pride in our town.
Tameside East Food Bank Charitable Incorporated Organisation
Tameside Foodbank collects donations of non-perishable food and money from the local public, churches, and businesses, stores the food and distributes to families and individuals experiencing food poverty. It works with local voluntary and statutory agencies to identify people in need.
Tameside Little Gems Parent/Carer Peer Support Group
We are a peer support group for parents and carers of children in Tameside with Special Educational Needs (SEN). We offer a Facebook Information and support group, a parents’ and carers’ WhatsApp group, and a monthly forum for members to share any Special SEN related issues which we can either answer during a Q&A session or raise with the appropriate professionals. We also offer a monthly sensory and gaming session to children in Tameside with SEN. We seek to eradicate parental feelings of isolation and offer members a safe space to seek advice and share experiences 24/7, 365 days a year.
Tameside’s People for Wildlife Grass Roots Local Wildlife Rescue Group
A grassroots organisation in the Tameside area, driven by a passionate team of local volunteers committed to the preservation of wildlife. Entirely volunteer-led, the organisation focuses on rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing wildlife in distress within the Tameside community. With a deep sense of responsibility towards the environment, the group actively engages in conservation efforts to safeguard the local wildlife. Our goals involve rescuing, rehabilitating where possible, and releasing wildlife in need, as well as engaging in community-based activities and education to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation for our local ecosystem.
