£10.5k grants support employment and skills in Bristol and Gloucestershire Three community projects for Bristol and Gloucestershire residents are celebrating after receiving a share of just under £10.5k project funding. Sovereign Housing Association, working with not-for-profit digital fundraising platform The Good Exchange, gave grants between £485 and £5,000 to online community group Advantages of Age, social enterprise FixX and Young Gloucestershire. Each project focuses on either increasing employment opportunities or helping people grow their skills. FixX, based in Hartcliffe and Withywood, will use its grant towards refurbishing a disused building into a community bicycle repair workshop. David Cousins, Managing Director at FixX, said: “We work with young people to improve their confidence, purpose and resilience through bike mechanics training. As part of our programme they earn a bike that they have worked on themselves. They are then able to progress to supportive employment opportunities through our bicycle delivery service. 34
“We are delighted to be working with Sovereign to develop training and employment opportunities in Hartcliffe.” Jade Innes, Social Impact Officer and Employment and Training Manager at Sovereign, added: “With the Office for National Statistics reporting nearly 1.3 million UK job vacancies between November 2021 and January 2022, it’s been a fantastic time to invest in employment and training-focused projects like these. “We want our residents and communities to be able to use these resources to grow their skills and use the experience to help them reach their goals and thrive.” Julian May, Head of Collaborative Funding for The Good Exchange, added: “We are delighted that Sovereign has been able to use The Good Exchange fundraising platform to quickly and easily identify, shortlist and select the 17 charitable and community organisations that have received employment and skills grants.”
