NEWS
RELEASE
Thursday
12 July
TRUST
FUNDS LAUNCH OF STRATFORD ALZHEIMER CAFÉ
Within
a week of Warwickshire County Council forecasting
a 27 per cent rise in cases of dementia over the next
ten years, Stratford-upon-Avon Town Trust is announcing
it is helping to develop an Alzheimer Café
in the town.
The
Trust – a registered charity dating back before the
birth of Shakespeare – is providing £7,000 in its
latest round of grants for towards the launch of the
café. No fewer than 35 organisations and projects
will be receiving a total of £130,443 in this second
batch of grants for 2006-07.
Another
£171,360 is also being provided over the next three
years towards the cost of three extra community support
officers and a mobile police station in the town.
An
Alzheimer Café already exists in Leamington and the
Alzheimer’s Society – which runs it – has been keen
to establish one in Stratford and is now looking for
a suitable location. The aim is to allow sufferers
and carers to meet in a relaxed social setting where
they can give and receive support and advice. The
programme includes sessions on coping and accessing
outside help.
Wendy
Harkness, the Alzheimer Café co-ordinator, said: “
The café has been a lifeline for people with dementia,
their carers and relatives providing practical help,
emotional support and also the means of making new
friendships with people ‘in the same boat’.
“A
number of people have had to travel from the Stratford
area to be involved in the café and we have had numerous
requests to give Stratford people a café of their
own. We are extremely grateful to the Town Trust for
enabling us to make this possible.”
Jo
Min, branch manager in Leamington, said: “It is fantastic
that we can now mirror the success of the Leamington
Alzheimer Café in Stratford-upon-Avon . Many of our
members attending other services in Stratford have
been waiting for this opportunity for what seems like
a lifetime.
“The
Stratford Town Trust has enabled the branch to begin
to develop a relaxed environment where people living
with dementia can gain emotional support, information,
social support, informal advice and consultation.
This is an exciting time for the Branch and Stratford
residences living with dementia. Thank you to Stratford
Town Trust forgiving us the chance to make a difference
to these peoples lives.”
One
of the other schemes receiving money from the Trust
is the Loft Workshop Furniture Project, which recycles
donated furniture to provide people in need with low
cost furniture and allows those experiencing or recovering
from mental illness to learn and improve their skills.
The project is getting £9,418.
Helen
Wood, the project development co-ordinator, said:
“Not only have we been able to help individuals on
low incomes but we are potentially keeping tonnes
of household waste from going into landfill. The furniture-recycling
project provides a place for learning new and improving
existing skills. The workshop gives attendees the
opportunity to gain in confidence and enhance their
self worth.”
Helen
said that a grant of £4,500 from the Trust last year
gave the project the funds to appoint a second van
driver. This provided the project with the ability
to make more collections and help more individuals
by supplying more recycled items of furniture. This
year’s grant meant the project would be able to retain
its second driver, maintain the second van and fund
additional storage for another year.
“We
are truly grateful to the Town Trust for continuing
to support this unique and very worthwhile community
project,” she said.
Other
organisations and projects included in the second
round of grants include Age Concern (£10,000), the
Samaritans (£2,500), Friends of Stratford Music Centre
(£3,000), Stratford-upon-Avon Baptist Church (£30,000
for the three-year funding of a church youth worker),
Victim Support (£4,000), Armonico Consort (£7,500
for a music workshop programme for primary schools),
the Friendship Project, a befriending service for
disadvantaged and vulnerable children (£2,000). The
Carpe Diem Theatre is also getting £5,400 to put on
the award-winning play The Vagina Monologues by
Eve Ensler, which highlights violence in our culture
and our capacity to overcome that violence.
Jean
Holder, the chairman of Stratford-upon-Avon Town Trust,
said: “Once again the Trust has been able to provide
essential funding for a wide range of organisations
in Stratford that deserve charitable support. What
is wonderful is that such a vast number of people
are engaged in so many projects aimed at helping their
fellow human beings in one form or another. The Town
Trust is pleased it can support them.”
For
further information contact:
Jean
Holder, Chairman, Stratford-upon-Avon Town Trust,
01789 268374
Carole
Taylor, Chairman, Grants Committee, 01789 297777 or
01789 295132
Jo
Min, Project Coordinator, Alzheimer’s Society, 01926
888899
Helen
Wood, Project Development Coordinator, Loft Workshop,
01789 297907
NEWS
RELEASE - THURSDAY
22 FEBRUARY 2007
THREE
QUARTERS OF A £MILLION FOR WORTHY CAUSES
Anti-bullying
workshops, a village orchestra (see case studies)
and a calendar to remind elderly people how
to guard against burglary are among the projects receiving
cash in the latest round of grants announced by Stratford-upon-Avon
Town Trust.
A
total of £768,348 is being given away by the Trust
– a registered charity that dates back before Shakespeare’s
time – in the first batch of awards for 2007. No fewer
than 72 organisations and worthy causes, the local
college and schools - and a small number of individuals
- will benefit from the money. A further £230,000
is still available and the next round of grant applications
will open in April.
The
cash is being provided for a vast range of purposes.
The single biggest recipient is the Royal Shakespeare
Company, which is getting £100,000 for its learning
and public open spaces project. The next single biggest
beneficiary is the Shakespeare Hospice, which is receiving
£59,000 for its Hospice at Home service.
Stratford’s
historic buildings also get generous recognition.
The Friends of Shakespeare’s Church are receiving
£40,000 towards the continuing costs of scaffolding
and repairs to the tower and spire of Holy Trinity,
and another £40,000 is going to the Friends of the
Guild Chapel to help them in their appeal to raise
funds to replace the pipe organ.
Most
of the grants, however, are much smaller but equally
important sums distributed to help an array of projects
throughout the town, many of which would not happen
without the financial support of the Trust.
They
include:
- £1,200
to Victim Support to hold anti-bullying workshops
- £800
to Wilmcote Fiddle Orchestra towards the purchase
of violins
- £2,500
to provide support for the sufferers of Dyspraxia
and their carers
- £10,000
to Mencap for the furnishing and setting up costs
of a four-bedroom house as a respite care home
- £15,000
to Age Concern for a handyperson and garden makeover
scheme
- £10,000
to Lifespace to provide mentoring and mediation
support to vulnerable young people
- £20,000
for Stratford churches’ youth project
- £1,000
to the Avon Evening Flower Club to educate members
and others in floral art
- £4,500
to Stratford Crime Prevention Panel to continue
improving security for the elderly and vulnerable
The
crime prevention panel is also getting £2,500 for
what is called a “Distraction Burglary” calendar project.
This is part of a county wide scheme in which elderly
people are provided with calendars that act as memory
jogs by regularly reminding them to take certain security
measures in their homes.
Stratford
College and the schools in the town also do well by
getting £172,000 in support from the Trust. Another
£20,000 is also provided so that poorer pupils and
students can benefit fully from their school or college’s
activities, such as taking part in organised trips.
These sums are separate from the £500,000 that King
Edward VI School (KES) in Stratford receives every
year from the Trust.
Another
beneficiary is R@GE , a
Christian club for children aged between five and
twelve that is receiving £500 towards equipment and
project costs. R@GE stages
readings from the Bible and offers the children the
opportunity to act out scenes from Biblical stories.
This
year is the centenary of the Boy Scout Movement. The
Boer War hero Lord Baden-Powell founded it in 1907
and Stratford District Scout Council will be getting
£7,425 towards the cost of town scout groups attending
the centenary camp at Charlecote Park in May. Individual
scout groups within the town are also receiving sums
of up to £1,000 for running costs, equipment provision
and building repairs.
Commenting
on this year’s round of grants Jean Holder, the Trust’s
chairman, said: “ I am very pleased that once again
the Trust is able to fund so many worthy causes to
help the people of Stratford-upon-Avon . I am particularly
encouraged to see new applicants being given grants
– and also so many smaller grants that I know
are greatly appreciated by the recipients.”
CASE
STUDIES
CASE
STUDY 1
Victim
Support is receiving £1,200 from the Trust
for the running of its anti-bullying workshops.
The
workshops began in early 2006 but this is the first
year they will be held in Stratford . Advisers will
be contacting local schools with the aim of visiting
them to hold meetings with seven to eleven year olds.
The advisers say that they are able to “open the eyes”
of the schools on what is going on in the way of bullying.
Contact:
Sue
Moss on 07841 423399.
CASE
STUDY 2
Dyspraxia
is a motor co-ordination disorder and sufferers
and their carers will be getting £2,500 from the Trust.
Mrs
Val Alleyne started a support organisation
in Coventry and has widened it to include Stratford
. Her son has the condition, for which there is no
cure. Mrs Alleyne says: “We set it up last year and
have 20 children on our books, and we support the
parents as well. Dyspraxia goes hand in hand with
dyslexia and produces co-ordination, spatial awareness
and balance problems, as well as learning difficulties.
In the most extreme cases, they bump into everything
and are very accident-prone. There are strategies
to help, which we call ‘coping strategies’. The sufferers’
self-esteem is very low. By the time they get diagnosed
they are over the age of ten and some of them have
already been told that they’re just stupid.” Mrs Alleyne,
who is attempting to increase awareness of the condition
and provide better help and training for sufferers’
families, can be contacted on: 07939 167373.
CASE
STUDY 3
Wilmcote
Fiddle Orchestra is receiving £800 from the
Trust for the purchase of instruments.
The
band had its first meeting last September. It was
set up by Marion English, who is
a violin teacher, along the lines of “The Singing
Estate”, as shown on TV, where people from one locality
who had never sung before got together to try out
their vocal chords. Although Wilmcote is outside Stratford
, it has qualified for support because 80 per cent
of the orchestra’s members live within the town. Says
Marion : “At our first meeting we had about 15 people.
But it’s really blossomed. We now have 45 members.
The youngest is seven and the oldest is eighty. Entire
families come; siblings and parents, aunts and uncles.
Three generations of one family play in it – a grandfather,
his daughter and her daughter. It’s just a fantastic
experience for everyone. People who’ve never picked
up a violin in their lives are learning to play. We
have 15 people who’ve never played before who are
now in an orchestra.” The orchestra, which now also
has two cellists and a viola section, is planning
some outdoor performances. It meets every second and
fourth Sunday of the month at Wilmcote Sports and
Social Club from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Contract Marion
English on 07764 752115.
For
further information contact:
Anita
Applebee, Business Manager, Stratford-upon-Avon Town
Trust,
01789 207108.
Jean
Holder, Chairman, Stratford-upon-Avon Town Trust,
01789 268374.
