Quartet of great causes win latest KCOM community grants

A sanctuary for refugees, a pre-school charity, a tree planting foundation and a group helping people stay safe at night are the latest winners of a KCOM Community Grant.

The grant scheme, which donates up to 1,000 to community groups and charities, highlights groups which improve the quality of life for people across the KCOM region of Hull, East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

The four latest winners are Hull’s Welcome House, Barrow Upon Humber Pre-School, The PATT Foundation in Preston and Hull Street Angels.

Neil Bartholomew, KCOM Retail Managing Director, said: “I’m delighted to announce the latest four groups who will receive a KCOM community grant.

“These groups are doing amazing things to help make life better in their local communities and I’m honoured to help and support these truly deserving causes.”

Nicola Johnson, of Barrow Pre-School, said their grant will be used to provide the children with more facilities and opportunities at their already established forest school area.

She said: “We would firstly say a huge 'THANK YOU' and be very excited as a preschool. We would not be able to wait to put the grant to good use and impact on the children's learning and wellbeing.”

Dr Andrew Steele, CEO of The PATT Foundation, said: “The grant will help us kickstart a bigger ongoing project as we’re looking to open the doors at the facility to the wider community. We’ve been working hard for six months to get to this position with a lot of the work self-funded by PATT and volunteer time to resurrect a site that has formerly been derelict for five years.

“We also hope to offer KCOM the opportunity to volunteer on-site as in parallel we will be growing trees to support the Northern Forest. This is the first step in forging relationships around the city with different groups so that we can collaborate and help more people.”

Welcome House will use its £1,000 grant to buy a chiller unit to store donated meals and drinks which they can safely pass on to their service users.

Bashir Siraj, General Manager of Welcome House, said: “We are very grateful and thankful, this will make a huge difference to us.”

Hull Street Angels provide help and support individuals who need a helping hand on the evening weekends in Hull City Centre. Their £400 grant will support the production of promotional literature to raise awareness and provide a conflict resolution course for volunteers.

The charity’s spokesperson said: “Thank you for the grant, it will help greatly towards raising awareness of our work in the community.”

KCOM Community Grants were launched in 2006 and have since supported hundreds of local groups to make life better in their communities.

Grants of up to £1,000 each are awarded every two months and are available to any charity or community group with the KCOM area of Hull, East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. The window for applications is always open and the only criteria for entry is that each entrant must work to improve the quality of life for people within their area.

For more details and how to apply for a KCOM Community Grant click here