Balance makes first awards

Several million pounds have been released to charitable causes under the Balance initiative this year by a number of financial institutions.

Some of these funds have been passed to the Balance Foundation and, following invitations earlier this year to charities to submit applications for amounts between £50,000 and £100,000, the first awards will be made over the coming weeks to charities addressing the Foundation’s priority area: the needs of vulnerable people over the age of 75 in the UK who are at risk of social exclusion. This first transfer of funds for charitable use marks the completion of the first cycle from release to grant and it is anticipated that further funds will be released next year.

A further round of grant making is planned for 2006.

The Balance Foundation will continue to work in partnership with the voluntary sector, statutory bodies and with the newly formed Commission on Unclaimed Assets, launched last week and with which the Balance Foundation is warmly cooperating.

The Balance Foundation is currently focussed on discussions with investment banks and investment management companies. Insurance protects the continuing rights of owners of unclaimed assets who may subsequently reclaim them.

There was an overwhelming response to the first grant programme. The Balance Charitable Foundation received over 800 outline applications. All of the successful applications were initially considered by an expert advisory panel whose advice guided Trustees’ decision making.

• Beth Johnson Foundation, Stoke-on-Trent: £29,580 - The Beth Johnson Foundation is recognised as a pioneer of advocacy with older people in the UK and has run local projects since 1989. The grant is towards the salary of a support worker and project costs to enable the Beth Johnson Foundation to extend an independent advocacy service for older people with dementia and other progressive mental health problems in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire. The project is focused in supporting appeals under the Mental Health Act, improving care support packages, seeking second opinions and diagnosis and questioning inappropriate applications for guardianship.
• Bromley Advocacy Alliance, Bromley, Kent: £40,000 - Bromley Advocacy Alliance is an independent, local voluntary organisation which runs local advocacy services. It delivers a successful Elders’ Choice service on behalf of older people in Bromley and their carers, promoting and communicating health and community care issues. A grant has been awarded to enable BAA to extend this service into the London Borough of Bexley.
• Counsel and Care, London: £72,000 - Counsel and Care is a national charity which focuses on obtaining the best care and support for the most vulnerable older people in society, beneficiaries are mainly 75–90 years old. Counsel and Care offers advice, casework, and campaigning. The grant is towards the costs, over two years, of a new project to support the advocacy work of local organisations in the UK through the provision of a national hub of information, independent of local and statutory authorities.
• Financial Fitness Resource Team, Greenock, Scotland: £36,474 - The Financial Fitness Resource Team provides welfare benefits advice on an outreach basis to the residents in Inverclyde, Scotland. Since 1999, it has successfully reclaimed over £7 million in unclaimed benefits and helped over 10,000 people. The grant is towards the salary, over two years, of an Older Persons Support Worker to help deliver the Older Person’s Support Project. The project aims to tackle social exclusion, poverty and deprivation by ensuring that local people receive the full range of benefits they are entitled to.
• Help the Aged, Scotland £35,000 - Within Scotland, Help the Aged works extensively with older people’s groups and forums assisting them with management and operational issues. The grant is towards the costs of its Peer Speaker Programme – a new home security project – which involves older people in dispersing information to their peers about bogus callers. The fear of crime amongst older people in Scotland is ranked highest of all worries by Help the Aged forum members – above anxiety about benefits or pension issues. The project will increase the distribution of clear information to a high number of older people through existing “forums” or peer networks.
• Iraqi Community Association, London: £14,000 -The Iraqi Community Association was established in 1987 in response to the need of the Iraqi community to create an identity in Britain. Its mission is to promote the well-being and integration of the community into British society. The grant is for the costs of a part-time Older People’s Support and Involvement Officer, working with volunteers, to deliver services to meet the needs of its clients over 75 in the London area.
• Leeds Age Concern: £51,027 - Age Concern Leeds’ range of services includes Hospital After-Care. The grant is towards the costs, over two years, of a social rehabilitation project for people over 75 who have been discharged from hospital, providing them with individual, tailored support to regain as much independence and social contact as possible, thus preventing an early return to hospital. The service fills a key gap in statutory provision, whose primary focus is on therapeutic services.
• Magic Me, Tower Hamlets: £66,000 - Magic Me is an arts organisation based in Tower Hamlets which has been running intergenerational arts projects since 1989. The grant is towards the costs of four inter-generational arts projects across the borough collectively called Our Generations: Phone-a Friend, Care Home Projects, Four Generations and an extensive inter-generational and intercultural project. Magic Me has won many awards for its work, and clearly demonstrates the dynamic roles of the arts in community work.
• Norwich Age Concern: £14,000 - Age Concern Norwich is a local independent charity working in and around Norwich. As with other Age Concerns the work has four main strands: delivery of services, campaigning and social advocacy, joint working with other organisations and research/development. The grant will enable Age Concern Norwich to maintain a successful shopping service for older disadvantaged groups. This is a door to door mini bus service to local supermarkets, run by volunteer drivers and escorts.
• Older Active People, Leeds: £60,000 - Older Active People works in the Headingley, Burley and Kirkstall areas of Leeds providing a range of activities and services for local older people such as trips and outings, intergenerational activities, befriending and supermarket shopping. Headingley has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past 20 years with the arrival of university students and the growing Asian British & Black Caribbean communities. Older Active People is part of the Cardigan Centre, a multi purpose community organisation and the grant is towards the costs of Older Active People’s Generations Together Project and the salary of the Intergenerational Development Worker who involves older people in a range of activities with children and young people, and works closely with five local primary schools. Generations Together aims to improve well-being, strengthen the local community and reduce social exclusion by improving intergenerational communication.
• Peaks and Dales Advocacy Forum, Buxton, Derbyshire: £48,859 - Peaks and Dales Advocacy Forum offer an advocacy service to vulnerable older people in the rural High Peak and North Derbyshire Dales. A grant has been awarded to enable the Forum to take forward its successful Older People’s Advocacy Pilot Project, working with people in residential homes in the area, and with people with dementia.
• Swansea Citizens Advice Bureau, Wales: £28,635- Swansea CAB serves the City and County local authority area and advises citizens in respect to benefits, housing, legal, consumer, employment rights and on financial problems, including debt. A grant has been awarded towards a sustained advice and information service for the over 75’s in Townhill and the Gower areas of the County, to ensure that benefit entitlements are maximised. The service will be run in partnership with Age Concern and Care and Repair.
• Third Age Arts, Northern Ireland: £19,945. Third Age Arts is a small charity which organises and teaches classes and workshops for old people in residential care in Coleraine, Ballymoney, Moyle and Ballymena. The grant will enable Third Age Arts to continue running its successful programme of courses in creative arts and crafts for older people in their 70s, 80s and 90s in care homes and sheltered accommodation in Northern Ireland. It has future plans to establish links with three local FE colleges which offer a diploma in Social Care and student placements with Third Age Arts.
• Wiltshire Age Concern: £58,480 - Age Concern Wiltshire is an independent charity. This grant is towards the costs, for two years, of establishing 4 clinics across Kennet and North Wiltshire which will offer a basic nail cutting service for older people predominantly over 75 who are unable to cut their toenails because of frailty, impaired vision, arthritis or the inability to bend and move freely. The service will be strongly community based and fill a key gap in the region: there has been considerable demand for an affordable and accessible nail care service as the local statutory Podiatry Service has tight eligibility criteria.

www.balancefoundation.org.uk