Community Grant recipients show ‘Together We Can’ in the Forest
‘Together We Can’, a charity based in Cinderford, recently received £1,500 through the Forest of Dean District Council’s Community Grant scheme. which they used to fund some of the equipment and materials they use on their weekly activity nights. The community grant is a one-off payment that aims to support projects being carried out by community groups.
Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Communities, Paul Hiett, said:
“The work carried out by the team at ‘Together We Can’ is phenomenal. Week in, week out volunteers work incredibly hard to provide disabled people a place to go and enjoy a variety of different activities.”
“It is a prime example of the kind of group we wanted to support through our community grant and I’m delighted to hear that they are using their grant to run their activity nights.”
“The community grant showcases just how keen we are to strengthen the forest community as a council. I’d like to thank the community team for all their hard work in setting up, organising and administering the community grant and look forward to hearing more about other recipients soon.”
Together We Can was set up in 2019 but was unfortunately hindered by the Coronavirus pandemic. However, they kept their weekly nights going over zoom and returned to their in person activity nights once it was safe to do so.
Testament to the work that they do with vulnerable people, since their return their numbers have increased. Now, they regularly get around 30-50 people attending their activity nights; with some even coming from outside the district. All in all, they have over 100 people who they have registered to use their club.
These members are across a range of ages with their youngest being five and their eldest being 83. Consequently, the staff make a concerted effort to run a variety of activities each week to ensure everyone enjoys and has their interests met.
The rapid growth of the club, however, has meant the need for better facilities and more resources. Leaving the organisation looking for alternative ways to fund its activity nights. Hence their application to receive one of the Forest of Dean’s community grants.
Sarah Davies, founder and organiser of Together We Can, said:
“The community grant has enabled us to supply the materials we have needed to run four months worth of club nights. It has taken off the pressure of having to work tirelessly to keep fundraising for us to keep going.”
“We’re very pleased to have been successful in our grant bid and grateful for the help at a time where money is very short for a lot of people. This has helped us to deliver our crazy and wonderful activities each week that make us unique from all the other clubs around.”
Their growing numbers also meant that they had to leave their previous building as it had become unsuitable. Moving instead to Cinderford Football Club; who themselves were a recipient of the community grant, using it to fund a cooker in their community kitchen.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be catching up with some of the other recipients of last year's community grant to find out how they have used it to benefit their community.