List of successful bidders for Small Grants Fund 2024-25
| Organisation name | Amount funded | Purpose of funding |
|---|---|---|
| Becoming Mums | £4,900.00 | To work with families in South Reading to offer peer to peer support, mental health and wellbeing check ins, creative activities and practical advice and signposting. |
| Green Shoots Book Club | £5,000.00 | To fund Creative Writing Project with aim to curate a library of books, and to produce their own material, resources and eventually a toolkit. |
| Reading Athletic Club | £4,640.00 | Recruiting and empowering young athletes from Reading’s more deprived areas achieved through taster training sessions in targeted primary schools and inviting keen athletes to free and reduced-price membership and training at Palmer Park. |
| Alice House Theatre | £5,000.00 | To fund “Our Town” after-school theatre and performance project in two secondary schools in Reading, providing a creative provision for young people to develop creative, confidence and communication skills in areas of most need. |
| Aspire2 | £5,000.00 | To fund Music Mentoring Project. A new initiative designed to help the most vulnerable children in the Whitley Excellence Cluster (WEC) schools who are at risk of permanent exclusion and are consequently vulnerable to criminal exploitation. |
| Avanti Cycling Trust CIC | £4,950.00 | To support projects that develop cycling for fitness and personal development within deprived communities. |
| Barbados and Friends Association (Reading) | £2,500.00 | To help Readings Barbadian, Afro Caribbean and other communities to become more health conscious and to educate the youth on financial matters. |
| Becalm Foundation | £4,220.00 | To continue youth work provision at Whitley Wood community centre where young people can socialise, make friends, keep active, feel comfortable, have an identity and be educated on anti-social behaviour, mental health strategies and coping mechanisms |
| Bengali Cultural Society Reading | £5,000.00 | To support the delivery of the 12th Reading Autumn Festival |
| British Islamic Gardens | £5,000.00 | To run creative arts workshops in community gardens to support lifelong learning and skills development, health and wellbeing in disadvantaged communities in Reading |
| Deaf Sports First | £2,400.00 | Funding for Deaf Football Festival in Reading, in June 2025; for men and women over 35 and their families. |
| Depression Xpression | £2,466.00 | To facilitate regular peer support groups for people with mental health issues in Reading. |
| Dogmouth Theatre | £5,000.00 | To organise and promote 2 Howling @ The Moon Cabaret events in Reading over the next 12 months |
| East Reading Festival | £2,500.00 | To support the East Reading Festival, including performances, activities and stalls, and celebrating goods, services and charities of East Reading. |
| Enrych | £5,000.00 | To enhance quality of life of physically disabled adults in Reading and the county of Berkshire, to reduce social isolation and encourage integration into mainstream society and improve their mental and physical wellbeing |
| Evoke Creative Wellness | £5,000.00 | To run Creative Wellness Workshops for under privileged Students and Children in Care |
| Faith Christian Group | £4,590.00 | To run a network of food pantries across Reading serving the local community who receive benefits or are on low income. |
| Forgotten British Gurkha Veterans Charity | £4,710.00 | To support the physical and mental wellbeing of the elderly and vulnerable Gurkha veterans, their families, widows and disabled members living in Reading by helping them to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle on a daily basis through diet and exercise. |
| Frontline Debt Advice Reading | £4,680.74 | To purchase multiple equipment to increase the effectiveness of volunteers resulting in a better service to more clients. |
| Graft Thames Valley Limited | £4,808.00 | To fund Bridges to Employment project to empowers disadvantaged jobseekers, including those with autism, mental health challenges, past convictions, or long-term unemployment, to access meaningful employment. |
| Green Health Thames Valley | £4,951.00 | To reach into the community and work with vulnerable individuals to deliver accessible and inclusive walks in local green spaces that are designed around the abilities and interests of the attendees as well as with broader mental health and physical health improvements in mind. |
| **Health & Education South | £5,000.00 | To provide provision of free English classes along with support for Mental Wellbeing for both Refugees and Asylum Seekers. |
| Kidical Mass Reading | £1,672.00 | To run Bike Repair workshops to provide core skills for marginalised groups – brake pad and chain repairs – with parts provided. |
| Local Pathways CIC | £4,500.00 | To work with young people between 13-16 who have disengaged or at risk of disengaging from mainstream learning, particularly during school holidays, when they are most vulnerable. |
| Muslim Roots Collective | £5,000.00 | Providing a part-time programme coordinator to manage, expand, and diversify our offerings consistently, providing a reliable presence in the community. |
| Reading Caribbean Nation CIC | £5,000.00 | To provide training for volunteers for Reading Windrush Parade and Festival organised by Caribbean community. |
| Reading Community Consulting and Accounting | £5,000.00 | To start a personal development coaching programme that combines skills-based training and research into local youth services provision in Reading and surrounding areas |
| Reading Ex British Gurkha Association (REBGA) | £5,000.00 | To fund project “HEALTH AND WELL-BEING” using Yoga methods, carrying out verity of events working health practitioners and different organisation. |
| Reading Golders Luncheon Club | £5,000.00 | To continue providing a safe, warm and welcoming environment for different elderly Caribbean residents, where friendships blossoms, different craft skills are learned, gentle exercise is practiced including dancing, support for each other, hot meals are provided, heritage and cultural discussions and learning. |
| **Reading Ukrainian Community Centre – Library | £2,000.00 | To sustain and expand the operations of the Ukrainian Library in Reading. This initiative provides access to over 700 books in Ukrainian and English to registered 109 adults and 72 children readers, cultural events, and a welcoming environment for displaced Ukrainians and the wider Reading community. |
| Sadaka | £5,000.00 | Reducing inequality in Reading by helping its most disadvantaged residents, who are disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis |
| South Reading Over 50s Social Club | £3,330.00 | To provide social opportunities for vulnerable older people in Whitley Wood and South Reading. |
| Southcote Community Association (SCA) | £5,000.00 | Funding for Community Engagement Initiative 2025. Relaunch Southcote Echo newsletter in printed and electronic formats and host events throughout the year to bring the community together. |
| Stepping Forward | £3,900.00 | To expand the benefits advice aspect of our part-time Disability Advice & Support Service, running an increased number of one-to-one advice sessions with disabled individuals and carers in Reading. |
| The Engine Shed | £4,210.00 | To establish an early years Engine Shed group for pre-school children on the autistic pathway, with their parents and carers, to meet twice a month |
| **The Rising Sun Arts Centre | £5,000.00 | Dressmaking Project with Refugees and Asylum Seekers |
| WhitArts Community Group | £4,000.00 | To run workshop showing how to quickly and efficiently build raised flower/vegetable beds from pallets. This will encourage and enable people to create their own home allotments – The pleasure and mental health benefits of growing one’s own food inexpensively is known to everyone. |
| Wild Tilehurst | £1,690.00 | To run events and enhance the use of our website. |
| Total | £162,617.74 | – |
**Notes: These organisations were funded from separate Refugee and Asylum and Homes for Ukraine budgets.
Last updated on 20/02/2025
List of successful bidders for Small Grants Fund 2024-25