£110k donation puts focus on families

Sunday 20 January 2019

Projects supporting children and their families are to be the focus as a local foundation seeks to donate £110,000 raised from the profits of Les Ormes for the benefit of the community.

The money comes in addition to the Bosdet Foundation's existing charity commitments of £131,000 and £28,000 from internal programmes, and charities are now being invited to apply for funding.

The Foundation is currently supporting 11 projects that make "significant changes in our society".

Pictured: Super Smiles, which is run by hygienist Caroline Wetherall and dentist Sarah Pollard and aims to educate children about dental hygiene, is currently being supported.

They include dental hygiene education programme Super Smiles, the Special Needs Inclusion Project of the Jersey Child Care Trust, water safety training for Child Accident Prevention, and work around literacy with Every Child Our Future.

They also support Jersey Action Against Rape (JAAR) by funding counsellor training as well as Volunteer.je and its online system.

But as Nigel Campbell, the Chair of Bosdet’s Charity Committee, explained, they are now looking for projects that support children and families and have "long-term impact and significant changes in society".

Pictured: This year, the Bosdet Foundation is looking to support projects that help children and families.

Successful projects, which Mr Campbell said should have measurable outcomes, could receive a maximum of £30,000 per year for up to five years. The Foundation will carry out reviews every six months and annually to ensure that the project is meeting agreed criteria.  

To apply, charities are invited to first contact Bosdet's Charity Manager Alan Le Pavoux, who will offer guidance and support to charities completing their application, which is due in February. 

In assessing the applications, he says he focuses on what difference the projects will make to the lives of individuals, the community as a whole and future generations. 

Pictured: Local charities have until 28 February to send their applications.

Local students are also getting involved in the process, as Mike Graham, General Manager of Bosdet, explained: "For the first time, we are recruiting a group of young people from Les Quennevais School to lead an identifying project and evaluate the outcomes.

"We have set aside £10,000 for them to donate. We are very excited about this and hope to develop this idea with young people from across the Island in future years."