Esher Community Fund
News
Race to raise £150,000 draws near!
We are urging local Esher residents to help raise £150,000 for the Esher Neighbourhood Fund. Thanks to a pioneering new Neighbourhood Challenge project, funded by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and the Big Lottery Fund, we can match every £2 donation to the Fund with a further £1. If you are a tax payer we can also claim Gift Aid on your donation which means it will nearly double in size, helping us achieve our target which will benefit projects in Esher.
The deadline for the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) match fund is 30th April 2012, which means you have to act quickly to take advantage of this generous offer.
To donate and for more information please click here.
Local residents to benefit from the launch of a new Community Fund
Residents living in the Esher area will be able to benefit from an imaginative funding initiative as a new Esher Neighbourhood Fund is to be launched at Sandown Park this week (Thursday). The new Fund will be the first of its kind in Elmbridge, and will allow local people to collaboratively support a range of vital local projects in their immediate community.
The Esher Neighbourhood Fund has been initiated by a group of residents who want to make a difference to some of the significant issues in the community. Working in close partnership with the Community Foundation for Surrey, a charitable trust which inspires local giving for local needs, they are hoping that the Fund will make a big impact supporting local need and tackling local issues.
The Community Foundation’s influential report ‘Hidden Surrey’ highlighted some surprising pockets of deprivation throughout the county. In certain areas of Esher there are some significant problems. For example, levels of child poverty are as high as 32%, life expectancy is several years below the national average and almost half of young people, well above the national average, do not stay in education from the age of 17. Donations to the Fund would enable community based projects to tackle some of these problems.
The Esher Neighbourhood Fund has already attracted backing from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) working with the Big Lottery Fund (BIG). By successfully winning one of their 16 nationwide Neighbourhood Challenges, it secured funding to enable it to launch an Endowment Match Challenge. This will enable it to match local donations to the Fund with a £1 for every £2 given – a significant incentive for those who want to give.
The long term objective locally is to build a permanent capital Fund of £150,000 which will grow over time and will always be available to help make an important contribution to meeting the needs of the area. Interest from the Fund will be distributed as grants to a wide range of local community causes such as support for families and children in the Lower Green area, training opportunities for people wishing to get back to work and sports activities for vulnerable young people.
Local MP, Dominic Raab, who has been closely involved in the development of the new Fund, spoke at the launch. He says, “I feel privileged to have been involved, working with the Community Foundation for Surrey and Lower Green Community Association to get this project up and running. We live in a wonderful area, but it is diverse not uniform. The Fund is about saying that we are one community, we feel a sense of civic responsibility, and we look out for each other. I hope it will prove a model that can be followed elsewhere in the future."
David Short, Chair of the Lower Green Community Centre, says, “We have done lots to help ourselves and make a difference to people’s lives over the last few years. With funding support from the wider local community we could achieve so much more.”
Dr Helen Bowcock, author of Hidden Surrey and Trustee of the Community Foundation for Surrey added, “This initiative has grown out of the determination of local residents to improve quality of life for people on low incomes, in particular the life chances of children living in relative poverty within Esher. I am honoured to be involved and to help build upon the successes already achieved, such as the volunteer run mother and toddler group.”
For more information about how to support the Esher Neighbourhood Fund go to www.communityfoundationsurrey.org.uk/esher or contact the Community Foundation for Surrey on 01483 409230.