The Liverpool ONE Foundation celebrates ₤2.5M worth of grants on Mental Health Awareness Week

AWARD winning retail and leisure destination Liverpool ONE has awarded local organisations more than ₤240,000 worth of funding through The Liverpool ONE Foundation, managed by The Community Foundation for Merseyside (CFM) The grants have been allocated between 10 local community organisations, spread out over the course of 2 years. This latest injection of funding will benefit an estimated 6,100 children, young people and families, as well as taking the total of The Liverpool ONE Foundation's distribution to ₤2.5 million.

Following the fund criteria, all projects provided with grants aim to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people across the Liverpool City Region. The 2021 programme has overseen the funding of 10 local organisations including:- Priority Youth Project in Liverpool, The Positivitree Ltd in Birkenhead, Footsteps 2000 Limited in St Helens, Sefton based Ykids, and Elsie's Moon on the Wirral.

With a recent study from the Princes Trust revealing that 50% of 16 to 25 year olds feel their mental health has worsened since the start of the Pandemic, and 26% stating they feel:- 'unable to deal with life,' awareness around the topic has never been so vital. For this reason, Liverpool ONE Foundation remains dedicated in its efforts towards charities that provide help and support to this particular age group.

This scheme previously awarded 4 local organisations with 3 year grants, spanning from 2017 to 2020, including:- Claire House Children's Hospice and Merseyside Arts Foundation, with funds of up to ₤60,000 per application. Other recipients of this funding were ADDvanced Solutions Community Network and The Comedy Trust.

Donna Howitt, Place Strategy Director at Liverpool ONE, said:- "We are humbled to be able to contribute to such worthy causes that place the mental health of younger people at the heart of what they do. We look forward to continuing to nurture and support the community through The Foundation programme over the next two years, benefiting young people all across the Region."

The Liverpool ONE Foundation's previous funding recipients also include:- Women's Enterprising Breakthrough, Liverpool Lighthouse, Home Start Knowsley, Yellow House, Shaftesbury Youth Club and Conquer Life CIC. Since 2009, the Foundation has donated over ₤2.5m to community projects, and directly benefitted approximately 375,000 people.
 

Alder Hey Children's Charity Embassy launches at Pleasureland

THE world's 1st ever charity embassy will open in Southport on June 1 as part of a joint initiative between Southport Pleasureland and Alder Hey Children's Charity. The short, informal and fun inauguration ceremony will be attended by VIPs, politicians and local family and education organisations. Liverpool based Consuls from 17 international consulates in and around the city have been invited to join the celebration. Representatives from the charity, as well as from the family attraction who have organised the event, will also attend on the day. After the Embassy crest is revealed, 1 of Alder Hey Children's Charity's Child Ambassadors will raise the new flag to declare the child scale building officially open. The ceremony will be followed by an ice cream and candyfloss (or just coffee!) reception before VIP guests and their families are invited to enjoy the park's rides and attractions by Pleasureland CEO Norman Wallis, who built the Alder Hey Embassy as part of his commitment to a new partnership with the charity. In line with the diplomatic tradition, the new Embassy represents a piece of the charity's territory within the park, the region's leading family focused attraction. The Alder Hey Embassy, set in its own gardens, at the heart of the park, will provide a base for charity representatives during fundraising events at Pleasureland. The charity's work is dedicated to supporting Alder Hey Children's Hospital.  Norman Wallis said:- "We are really happy to do this for Alder Hey Children's Charity. They are our chosen charity and we want them to feel at home so we thought, what better way to do that than create an authentic ‘home from home' with a dedicated Embassy. The charity raises vital funds to help make Alder Hey Children's Hospital a truly world class, patient friendly hospital for the 330,000 patients and families they care for each year and we are sure park visitors will consider supporting a charity that is so important to us all."