Local charity, Foundations Furniture, is celebrating after being awarded £106,316 in National Lottery funding to support its work to alleviate furniture poverty in Gateshead.
Foundations has been running since 1996 by a team of staff and volunteers who dedicate their time to ensuring Gateshead residents can affordably create and maintain safe, comfortable home lives during times of hardship. The charity began as a community based, part-time service for residents of the Teams estate who struggled to furnish their first homes. It soon became a full time operation, extending its assistance to the entire borough.
Today, the charity supports thousands of people with household items each year, and collects over 60 tonnes of furniture and appliances which are donated by people and business across Tyne and Wear.
People who access the charity for furniture are able to reduce the recognised impact of furniture poverty, especially for mental health and overall wellbeing.
Furthermore, the charity has an in-house employment readiness programme, Foundation4Work, for unemployed people to access personalised support with any part of the job-seeking process they might be struggling with, from CV writing, through to interview techniques and confidence building.
The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will ensure Foundations can continue to provide support for the next three years.
Foundations says:
“We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund is so generously supporting our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to support people who struggle to afford furniture during their most vulnerable times, and help them to create a home life where they feel safe, settled and comfortable. We see first hand the positive impact this has on all members of the household. We are really grateful to have the means to continue to be there for people in our community when they need us most."
The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.
As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year The National Lottery Community Fund was able to distribute over half a billion pounds (£615.4 million) of life-changing funding to communities. To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk.
For further information about Foundations Furniture please contact the charity on 0191 4778337, visit the website www.foundationsfurniture.co.uk, or visit the charity at 1-6 Teams Craft Workshops, Askew Road West, Gateshead, NE8 2PB. (Foundations is open every weekday excluding bank holidays, between 9am and 4pm).
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