We provide grants to local charities and community groups across the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire through our Newcastle Building Society Community Fund.
We are continuing to support projects working to tackle issues linked to employability, food poverty, debt management, homelessness, and the environment.
This spring, we awarded our largest ever allocation of small grants. A total of £91,931 was awarded to 27 charities, including 11 good causes nominated by our members.
Here’s more about the most recent grant recipients and the amazing work they do:
Grant awarded - £4,997
Grace House works to enrich the lives of disabled children, young people and their families, across the North East and Cumbria.
The grant will be used to fund Life@GraceHouse – a project that provides financial advice and support to the families of disabled children and young people.
The project will help families address hardships predominantly caused by the cost of living crisis, and help parents and carers ease financial issues, such as debt, benefits, and food poverty.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £4,391
Women’s Health in South Tyneside (WHIST) was formed by a group of local women in South Tyneside in 1986, who worked voluntarily to address gaps in services and support.
WHIST’s mission is to improve the quality of life for women living in South Tyneside. The grant will help them provide support to women suffering from financial hardship and other challenging circumstances using a range of tailored services.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £3,000
West View Advice & Resource Centre (WVRAC) provides free, independent advice to individuals and families in Hartlepool across a range of areas, such as housing, benefits, debt management, and employment.
WVRAC will use its grant to cover the core costs of its financial management advice work.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £3,000
Operating from the Co-op centre in Hendon, Sunderland, as well as a variety of community outreach sites and foodbanks across Sunderland, Fiscus North Limited provides advice and support to people in need, hardship, or distress due to their social or economic circumstances.
Fiscus will use its grant to help fund its debt management, crisis relief, and environmental initiatives.
Grant awarded - £3,000
The North of England Refugee Service (NERS) works to improve the everyday life conditions of asylum seekers and refugees who have arrived or settled in the North of England, as well as promote their social inclusion by helping them to integrate and participate in society.
The type of assistance NERS offers includes asylum advice, integration support, housing advice and management, and an interpreting and translation service.
Services are delivered from NERS' head office in Newcastle, as well as two satellite offices in Sunderland and Middlesbrough, and a community drop-in centre in Stockton.
NERS will use its grant to contribute towards core work costs.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £2,000
Foundations Furniture provides low cost, pre-loved household items to residents in Gateshead who are experiencing hardship.
The grant will help provide children and young people new beds and mattresses, following a decline in the amount of second-hand furniture being donated due to rising living costs.
Grant awarded - £4,000
Community Campus 87 provides accommodation and ongoing support to young people at risk of homelessness across the Tees Valley.
The grant will be used to provide a weekly lunch club and IT sessions to new, vulnerable service users, many of whom are new to Teesside, to help them integrate into the community.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £5,000
Clean Slate Solutions works to help people across Teesside and North Yorkshire who have a past conviction into paid employment, as well as reduce reoffending and improve rehabilitation to create safer communities.
The grant will go towards Clean Slate Solutions' Employer Engagement work, which links beneficiaries to work placements with local employers. Clean Slate Solutions will increase the number of employers it works with and employ someone to provide support and oversee its beneficiaries’ placements.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £3,000
The Percy Hedley Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities through care, education, and learning opportunities.
The grant will support the Foundation's Horizons project, which provides activities for young people with complex autism and other needs, enabling them to develop new life skills and greater independence.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £2,500
TEN provides educational and vocational training to disadvantaged young people and adults across South Tyneside, to help them find and secure employment.
TEN also supports young carers and their families, and offers counselling and advice to people experiencing poverty and hardship.
The grant will be used to develop and extend TEN's employability work.
Grant awarded - £3,000
Based in the West End of Newcastle, Patchwork Project gives young people access to a range of leisure activities and personal development opportunities, to raise their aspirations and confidence, improve their wellbeing, and give them life skills.
Patchwork Project will use its grant to help increase service users’ employability.
Grant awarded - £3,000
Hartlepower aims to reduce poverty in Hartlepool, by running two enterprise centres that can be used by social enterprises, community groups, and small businesses, providing a permanent resource for job creation.
Hartlepower will use its grant to refurbish its enterprise hub, as well as create a growing space for vegetables and herbs that will be used by Hartlepool Food Council in their food redistribution scheme.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £2,925
Kids Kabin gives children and young people in disadvantaged communities the opportunity to participate in creative and practical workshops, to help them develop their skills, talent, and sense of self.
Kids Kabin will use its grant to run an environmental learning project for young people across Newcastle.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £4,788
The Children’s Foundation focuses on improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people across the North East, through a range of research and projects in local communities and child health establishments.
The Foundation will use its grant to continue running its weekly children’s community allotment, which offers young people from disadvantaged communities in Newcastle the opportunity to experience and have fun in nature.
Grant awarded - £2,500
The Tyne Rivers Trust is an environmental charity dedicated to improving the River Tyne and its catchment, through education, tackling pollution, and conservation.
The Trust will use its grant to extend its engagement work to harder-to-reach local groups on the River Don, Jarrow, and Ouseburn, Newcastle.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £3,000
West End Women and Girls Centre gives women and girls the opportunity to learn skills, build their confidence, and positively change their lives in a safe and supportive environment.
The grant will be used to set up a large outdoor growing space as a farm, to support women and families who are experiencing food poverty.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £2,000
Tullie is a museum, art gallery, and community hub that connects Cumbria and Carlisle to the UK’s big cultural centres.
Objects in its care include an internationally significant natural science collection, a fine and decorative art collection, a wide-ranging social history collection, and a nationally significant archaeology collection made up of Roman artefacts from Hadrian’s Wall.
Tullie will use its grant to develop its community garden space, which will create volunteering opportunities for vulnerable community members, who are unable to access other public garden spaces.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £4,100
Working across North and South Tyneside, Family Gateway works with families where children who are in or at risk of poverty can engage in activities that lead to training or employment opportunities.
In 2018, Family Gateway relocated to Howdon Community Centre, Wallsend, and will use its grant to create a breakfast club for local primary school children.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £5,000
Walking With In North Tyneside supports asylum seekers and refugees in North Tyneside, primarily around Wallsend, by relieving hardship, increasing social inclusion, and improving their English skills.
They also offer a range of services including providing food, clothes, wellbeing and social activities, and advocacy and support services.
Following concerns of food poverty and rising living costs, Walking With In North Tyneside will use its grant to buy fresh fruit and vegetables for services users to help them eat more healthily.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £4,798
YMCA Newcastle primarily works with young people aged 11-25 overcome disadvantages and reach their full potential. However, its overall mission is to provide their community and young people with opportunities, resources, and the support so they can thrive.
YMCA Newcastle will use its grant for its new Keeping Connected programme, which will give residents aged 55+ in Walker and Byker a warm place to meet and eat a hot meal, following rising living costs.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £4,500
Boldon Community Centre is a registered charity that provides community groups and residents in Boldon, South Tyneside a place to meet.
The Centre offers a range of activities and facilities, including sports and leisure facilities at an affordable rate, as well as a community foodbank. They are also partnered with South Tyneside Council to offer a designated warm space.
The grant will be used to buy food to stock the foodbank, as well as create hot meals to serve in the warm space.
Grant awarded - £4,732
The Community @NE66 Charitable Trust is a community and youth development project based at the Alnwick Community Centre in Northumberland.
The Trust aims to advocate, empower, and support vulnerable individuals and communities in North Northumberland.
The grant will be used to create and deliver food parcels to disadvantaged families.
Grant awarded - £3,000
Streetwise Young People’s Project is a support service for young people aged 11-25. Its services include information and guidance, counselling and wellbeing, youth work and outreach activities, and relationships and sexual health services.
Streetwise will use its grant to address food poverty, by teaching young people who use its Early Help Community Support Hub how to cook.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £3,000
Hartlepool Foodbank is a member of the Trussell Trusts groups of foodbanks, who provide food vouchers and debt advice to those in need.
The foodbank will use its grant to buy food, as the number of users and demand increases.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £2,700
Fighting All Cancers Together (FACT) works across the North East to give individuals with cancer and their families support and social activities, such as coffee mornings, lunch clubs, and exercise classes.
FACT also deliver cancer education and awareness programmes across schools, colleges, public buildings, and places of work.
The grant will be used to provide an extra coffee morning for 12 months, following increasing demand amongst service users.
Grant awarded - £2,000
RT Community Projects aims to help people overcome poor mental health so that they can live a full life. RT work alongside people affected by depression, anxiety, and at risk of suicide, so that they can develop emotional resilience and coping strategies.
The grant will contribute towards the costs of providing one-to-one support to RT's beneficiaries.
Find out more about the charity here.
Grant awarded - £2,000
Berwick Community Development Trust works to champion or deliver projects that meet the economic, social, and environmental needs of local people.
The Trust engages in a range of activities including organising events, providing a foodbank and childcare services, supporting young carers, and providing support and training opportunities for unemployed or socially excluded people.
The grant will be used to replace the accessible access door entry system at the Trust's base, so that it remains accessible for all users.
Find out more about the charity here.
Gateway into the Community & Sunderland Bangladesh International Centre
In March 2022, we awarded grants to a variety of organisations across the region to help them celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and tackle social isolation, which increased as a result of the pandemic. Take a look as we caught up with two of the groups!
Our Community Fund grants
Community grant recipients
