In just six years, Ørsted’s Walney Extension Community Fund has awarded a massive £3,899,080 to projects in coastal communities in Cumbria and Lancashire.
The latest funding round alone has seen eleven organisations receiving the news that they are to share a total of £260,000 in grants awarded through the Fund.
The Fund has now supported 212 projects in the region through the main Walney Extension Community Fund and the dedicated Skills Fund.
One of the groups celebrating their recent grant success is CancerCare North Lancashire & South Cumbria who are to receive £38,844 towards a project to support children and young people affected by cancer and loss. Alison Stainthorpe, CancerCare's CEO, said: “We’ve seen a huge rise in demand for our help for children and young people in the Barrow and Furness area who are bereaved or affected by cancer. This funding from the Walney Extension Community Fund means that for the next two years, we can be there for anyone in the area aged 3-18 who needs one to one support. Whether it’s play therapy for a young child or counselling for a teenager, we offer the professional help, emotional support and collective strength to face the future.”
Also receiving the good news their funding application had been successful is Lancashire Youth Challenge. Guy Christiansen, Lancashire Youth Challenge’s CEO, said: “Lancashire Youth Challenge is thrilled to have received this generous grant from the Walney Extension Community Fund, which will enable our charity to provide positive, meaningful and lasting impact in the lives of local young people via the delivery of a twelve-month programme of emotional and physical wellbeing sessions and outdoor education opportunities.”
The full list of organisations awarded grants from the latest round of funding are as follows:
Imran Nawaz, Stakeholder Advisor & Community Benefit Fund Manager for Ørsted, said: “It’s amazing how much the Fund has achieved in just six years. When we say we ‘Love Our Home’ not only does that mean combatting climate change but supporting our local community. We are so close to giving back £4million from our Walney Extension Community Fund to organisations and people who have already benefitted. Please keep applying and giving us the chance to help.”
The Fund is made possible by Ørsted, the global leader in offshore wind, which has constructed one of the world’s largest operational offshore wind farms, Walney Extension, off the Walney Island coast in Cumbria. Each year, approximately £600,000 will be made available for community projects for the expected 25-year lifetime of the wind farm.
The Fund is being administered by national grant-making charity GrantScape and more details can be found at GrantScape’s website www.grantscape.org.uk or by calling 01908 247634. The next closing date for applications is 6 January 2023.
