Latest round of Merseyside Women s funding distributed to grassroot causes

Grassroots groups working in Merseyside will get much-needed grants worth more than £70,000 to help support local women and girls facing a range of challenges.

Eleven projects will receive grants of between £5,000 and £10,000. This is the second round of funding the Community Foundation for Merseyside has awarded through its Merseyside Women’s Fund with funding from the Tampon Tax Community Fund, with additional support from The Momentum Foundation and the Merseyside Women of the Year Awards.

The fund has helped women and girls of all ages that are experiencing issues such as period poverty, domestic and sexual abuse, social isolation and mental health issues.

Some of the projects being funded included:

• Swan Women’s Centre: Received a grant of £8,634 to work in partnership with SWACA to develop a counselling service that is specifically aimed at supporting women who have experienced domestic abuse and live in Sefton

• Porchfield Community Association: Received £6,400 to develop a programme that will address the educational, social and health needs of the women in the community, achieving long term benefits and real impact by offering a range of activities

• Comics Youth: Awarded a grant of £10,000 to support the LiverGrrl Riot project which will provide two cohorts of marginalised young women (including trans women) aged 12-17 and 18-25 the opportunity to become catalysts of change within their communities and open windows to hazard strewn worlds by curating a women-led monthly zine and pop-up creative art-focused events

• Granby Community Mental Health Group: Awarded £10,000 to run a project www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvMJGE5PaoA&t=12sthat will take a multi-faceted approach tailored to increase the emotional, mental and physical well-being of women of Liverpool’s Arabic/Asian Communities, developing a greater understanding of personal health and increasing the level of promoting early intervention and prevention of poor health.

 “Our Merseyside Women’s Fund supports the groups on the ground that are making a huge difference to the lives of women and girls,” adds Community Foundation for Merseyside Chief Executive, Rae Brooke.

“We know there is huge demand out there for these services and are proud to help small organisations working in our community to access vital funding they may otherwise miss out on.”

The Merseyside Women’s Fund was launched in 2018 and has since distributed over £140,000 to grassroots organisations working with women or girls facing multiple challenges; user-led organisations and sustainable projects providing long-term solutions.

For further information about the Fund’s purpose, visit: www.cfmerseyside.org.uk/womens-fund Learn more about the impact the Merseyside Women’s Fund has already had by watching our video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvMJGE5PaoA&t=12s

Community Foundations are local champions, connecting people and organisations that want to improve their communities. They invest in local people and organisations tackling some of the biggest issues facing communities today and supporting some of society’s most disadvantaged people. They provide help and advice to those who want to give at the heart of their communities, both now and in the long-term, by matching donors to important local causes.

This is the second time UK Community Foundations have been selected by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to distribute the largest share of Tampon Tax funding. This is money raised through the levy on sanitary products which will be passed to small, local projects, working through the national network of Community Foundations – including the Community Foundation for Merseyside.