GRANTS of up to £10,000 are now available for charitable projects that focus on health and wellbeing. Sovereign Housing Association has continued its work for the not-for-profit digital fundraising platform, The Good Exchange, meaning it now has £90,000 to share through a community grants programme. Any group or charity running projects within three miles of Sovereign homes, across the South of England can apply. Further funding will also be announced later on this year. Rachel Peters, Community Development Officer at Sovereign, said: “In the last two years of working with The Good Exchange, we’ve given over £385,000 in grants to 120 community groups, charities and initiatives, including The Berin Centre in South Oxfordshire, Citizens Advice West Berkshire, and Faithworks Wessex’s homelessness and mental health work in Dorset.
Generation economically ‘scarred’ by pandemic );
UNEMPLOYMENT among young people in South Oxfordshire has risen sharply during the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of 16- to 24-year-olds claiming job-related benefits has increased by more than 200 per cent in the past year.
Research by the Prince’s Trust shows that the under-25s account for three in five of the people who lost jobs during the crisis.
At the same time, many graduates who left university last summer have struggled to find work and this summer a fresh cohort of graduates will join the jobs market.
They include 24-year-old Ella Shearman, of Milton Close, Henley, who graduated from Kingston School of Art in June with the hope of realising her long-held ambition of a career in fashion.
Three community centres have opened and are now available for community bookings. South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils have opened all their community centres on Great Western Park. The Northern, District and Southern centres, two of which are brand new buildings, are now available for residents and groups to hire with priority bookings given to groups helping to support Covid-19 responses. Last year, the district councils took over the District and Southern centres from Taylor Wimpey and, during lockdown, have modified them to ensure they comply with health and safety regulations, and work has been carried out on all three centres to introduce all the necessary Covid-19 safety measures.