The church runs a community cafe that opens twice a week and serves a 2 course hot meal at a nominal cost per meal of £1 or free to those in need. Each week an average of between 200 and 250 meals are provided. Meals may be eaten on the premises or taken away. It is open access and aimed to help any person or family in poverty, struggling with the cost of living, homeless, unemployed or in crisis. Volunteers are drawn from the church and the community. In addition it also hosts the local food club that provides fresh short date surplus food at minimal cost.
They approached us when it had become obvious that their existing tents had reached the end of their useful life - as no one wants a leaky tent, especially if it's their first time camping. The 3R Foundation was more than happy to help with the funds for these, and there were a few very happy faces when we went to see them.
They are a family friendly club who have been established in the local Bare community since 1948. Their old fridge was no longer fit for purpose so they now have a new one which allows them to safely store food and refreshments for matches.
Alongside offering food to the community, they also have a team of volunteers from the Ridge Estate (the immediate community) and some from outside the community who listen to those who want to talk about what they are going through. The volunteers also provide support and advice on budgeting and debt management especially during this current climate. They approached us for a grant as they wanted to offer a larger variety of food and hot lunches to the people that come to the café every week, we were happy to help.
They came to us here at the 3R Foundation with the following request: "We have had an electrical inspection on our Clubhouse which has deemed the electrics to be in serious need of immediate improvement. To not do the work involved will mean the Clubhouse becomes unsafe and will mean we are unable to operate. Obviously this is a major worry. We are therefore seeking support from the 3R Foundation to see if you could help us in our hour of need". They are now up and running and safe again!
The group are keen climbers and their current equipment needed to be replaced in order to ensure the safety of everyone taking part. They had struggled to recruit helpers and leaders over the last few years, but a recent influx of enthusiastic parents has ensured the group can continue so they are now able to offer a place to every young person who wishes to join. Beavers are aged 6-8, cubs aged 8 to 10 and scouts aged 10-14. The 3R award allowed them to buy 20x petzl sit harnesses, slings and ropes.
A number of artists who are enroute to Edinburgh Fringe will stop off in Carnforth and Morecambe and provide free previews of their acts and these will be supplemented with local artists, theatre and art demonstrations. We were asked to help fund promotional banners and leaflets to publicise the Fringe events in and around Carnforth.
They promote interest and participation in gardening and have built a social network among the local gardening community with Village Community Gardening Days, planting over 700 bulbs in Autumn 2023. They have numerous projects that involve clearing grass, planting hundreds of plug plants, and seeding, and are also partners with Halton with Aughton Heritage Group, who are hoping to open up the Motte and Bailey site in the village, and have agreed they will take responsibility for seeding the field there when the time comes. However, they found that many of the people who came to join them did not have their own appropriate equipment, so they approached us to help build up a 'library' of gardening tools and equipment which can be used by these volunteers. We were very happy to help and the results are stunning.
The club primarily provides facilities for playing cricket in the West End area and has an active junior/youth section starting with under 9,s through to teams at u11, u13, and u15. Adult men's cricket has four teams together with one ladies team. The clubhouse is used by various local organisations, and during the COVID pandemic it was used as a vaccination hub. Cricket is played on fine turf grass which requires a high level of maintenance, and the club approached us as they were looking to purchase a reconditioned lawn mower to replace their old one, which was beyond repair as replacement parts are now obsolete. We were happy to help towards this substantial long term investment as it provides the club with the equipment to produce an excellent playing surface for many years to come.
The team was formed in 2003 from an amalgamation of "Furness" and "Millom" MRT's. They have a current average of 42 call-outs each year, working on their own or with our neighbouring teams from Wasdale, Coniston and Kendal. As well as Mountain Rescue the Team has a smaller group of 12 Swift Water Technicians who are trained specifically to deal with river searching and to assist with flooding situations. More importantly, the 10 MR Teams of the Lake District all have Swift Water Teams that come together to form a large, rapidly mobilised group that can provide support in major regional flood incidents; which really is a fantastic resource for the whole region. The equipment they use must be regularly checked and replaced so the 3R Foundation was happy to help towards the costs of new carabiners, slings, pulleys and wading poles.
The club was established in 1830 and is the oldest bowling club in the area. Although the main outdoor focus is the bowling the clubhouse has a snooker table, table tennis, darts, a small kitchen, small bar and a clubroom. They are endeavouring to reach out to the local community and become more of a community hub for the west of Lancaster. As part of this project they wanted to enhance the areas around the green, improving the flower beds, erecting bird boxes, creating a bug hotel and installing the new planters which contain wildflowers. Ultimately they plan to add seating as well so that more people can enjoy the peace and tranquillity of this special space.
They wanted to buy a guillotine to cut their 'Zines', (mini home made magazines) and Posters which the community groups and charities who they work with, make. They run beginners/induction workshops for anyone wanting to learn more and have a go at Riso printing, after this participants can then join the Riso Club to get access to the machine and print their own designs.
Team members can now wear these while on duty at the hospitals or when they are doing outdoor events.
The Field was left in trust by Miss Whalley to the people and children of Lancaster as a memorial to her brother killed in WW1 and is a registered war memorial site. Their key objective is to protect and improve a green space in the middle of a built up area of Lancaster. Their volunteers spend many hours carrying out maintenance and management to achieve this. The Field is widely used for recreation and events such as a remembrance day service and is increasingly environmentally important for many species of native wild flowers, trees and insects. They have planted nearly 700 native trees and around 7000 native wild flower plug plants over the last 5 years. One of our latest projects is to plant more fruit trees beneficial to flora and fauna and the community. They have recently started a partnership with the Lancashire Youth Challenge charity giving an opportunity for youngsters to try outdoor activities who have helped clear an overgrown area of the Field to form a new orchard. They will plant trees/bushes, manage and maintain them, collect fruit and use it for eating/cooking to demonstrate the various stages of food production. The 3R Foundation grant allowed them to buy five pot grown trees that should flourish quickly and produce fruit next year. These will join other trees planted recently.
They also run a community outreach program providing training to community groups in skills such as Water Awareness, First Aid and Mental Health First Aid. They recently expanded their operational team to 38 and came to us as they needed additional PPE for their new Swift Water Rescue technicians, including PFDs (personal flotation devices), helmets and drysuits.
They have seen an increasing need for children to have support in regulating their emotions, and although this was something they have always prioritised, it has become a larger focus since Covid. The school has adapted to this with a change in their behaviour policy to focus more on relationships and regulation and have converted a number of spaces in school into 'regulation spaces'. These are areas where the children can spend time either on their own or with an adult, safely regulating their emotions ready to return to learning. The five spaces they converted were previously storage rooms so the grant was used to purchase beanbags, other furnishings and decorating materials to convert them into something that was much more useful for them.
Specialist Search Dogs work with emergency services, first responder organisations and a number of partner search teams and provide specially trained land and water cadaver search dogs as well as air scent and tracking and trailing trained dogs. The grant was used to provide waterproof jackets to their search dog handlers and search technicians for protection during wet weather searches. They had recently self funded fleece jackets but were in need of a badged outer waterproof layers for team members.
Many factors such as grief, disability, mental ill-health or financial worries can lead to men becoming isolated or feeling distanced from their fellow human beings. Women are often able to voice and share their worries, whereas men sometimes find it difficult to reach out or articulate their own feelings. Men tend to take a more sideways approach to talking, sharing and breaking out of loneliness. The purpose of Lancaster Men’s Hub, or LMH, is to help by providing activities which open up exactly that sideways approach. By taking part in any kind of shared activity you automatically meet with others. Small exchanges about what you are doing gradually grow into relaxed conversations. Friendships can form and people can get to know each other. Research shows that improvements in wellbeing usually follow. They provide a growing range of activities to interest as wide a range of men as possible. This includes regular "Elevenses" every Friday, a regular games evening, walking football, an allotment, walks and recently they opened a workshop. Many hand tools, power tools and even some machine tools have been donated, but they have to provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as facemasks, ear defenders and safety glasses to members so we were happy to help!
Their main aims are; Raising aspirations and supporting personal development Inclusive practice Improving wellbeing and mental health Building confidence and learning life skills Offering opportunities and new experiences for all ages and all abilities This is what they said: "A huge mahoosive thankyou to the amazing team at the 3R foundation / 3R Charity who raise funds to help organisations like ourselves, you truly are special humans. The fund they awarded us has covered costs for new T shirts for our youth Theatre Group productions, we meet every Tuesday at The Platform - Morecambe 6-8pm, we are delighted, THANKYOU from everyone.
the opportunity for members to play in local and county league matches, and an extensive programme of professional coaching for children and adults, including older people, their facilities are available to visitors and they are developing more contacts with local schools. The club is run entirely by volunteers and members range in age from 4 years old to 83 years old. They have also recently introduced Pickleball which is particularly beneficial in keeping older people active, and has proved popular among current members as well as attracting new members to the club.
They host most of the local junior and secondary schools annual cricket competitions and are working hard to include a greater number of younger players. They run 3 weekend senior teams, under 19s, under 16s, under 13s, two under 11s and under 9s. They received re-accreditation of the much valued ClubMark status in 2023. All of their grounds people and junior coaches are volunteers and they are proud to include 14 fully qualified coaches in their coaching team. They approached the 3R Foundation with a request to help with the purchase of a 25m x 8m flat cover sheet to protect the playing area from rain. This will allow the wicket to be kept dry and playable again quickly after wet weather, meaning many hours more match time for everyone.
They aim to use the outdoors as a tool to improve poor mental health, overcome addiction, and improve the well-being of children from disadvantaged backgrounds Ryan from Bee Adventures said: "We are blown away by the generosity from 3R Charity granting us £500 to purchase equipment to finally get our forest school program up and running!! Later this year we’ll be working with local primary schools to help children most at risk of exclusion. The class room model is not always the best environment for all children (it certainly wasn’t for us), we’re going to use nature to help give these children new experiences that can help build confidence, social skills and control emotions. This wouldn’t be possible without this grant! Thank you!! 🐝"
They currently have one team, but they are looking to expand in the future to include more adult and junior teams. They approached the 3R Foundation as they needed 60+ metres of green windbreak netting to secure the outfield fencing, hedges and surrounding community buildings. From a safety point of view this is needed to help prevent damage to people, property and buildings and prevent the loss of very important club property i.e cricket balls!
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UPDATESCheck back for our latest grant updates and to see what your local clubs and groups are doing with the grants we give out. Archives
July 2024
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