Friday 1st September 2017 - funding opportunities, plus personal

Posted 1:00pm

This weekend I am concentrating on looking at as many funding opportunities as possible - as in all honesty we can only continue properly if we can show people we are worth investment - be that grants or sponsorship or commissioning.

We currently have two applications being processed - £2500 with the Gunners Fund, and £6600 with Cloudesley. The former is more on HMHB itself, and the latter concentrating on expanding our Izzwalkz project.

I have already got my eye on four other applications, all of which we will be submitting in the next two weeks The Local Initiative Fund is administered through local borough councillors, and can be up to £1000 on projects in their own ward - we are Highbury East and our Clissold Park walk comes under that - and after meeting two of our councillors (Osh Gantly and Caroline Russell) we are quite confident we can get something.

We will also be applying to the Islington Giving Fund administered by Cripplegate - to a maximum of £2500. We did apply last year, and were turned down, but that was mainly because we were not actually providing assistance. Now we have the walks and the programs we are more hopeful.

There is a local charity called Trust For London - this is a larger amount and we will be looking around £60,000 to £80,000 over two years - so £30K to £40K each year.  This would be for Ajani and at least cover some wages - even if that is part time at the moment.  We have been encouraged to aply to them via Voluntary Action Islington.

Finally, we will be applying to Awards For All, managed by the Big Lottery Fund. I spoke with their representative twice, and she is very encouraging to us - again though this is a maximum of £10,000.

We will be looking at other opportunities too - but most funding does not take into consideration salaries - and we have three (myself, Luke and Dean) to think about - and they are relying on me to sort it all out.  But it is very encouraging.

I would also like to say that my eye is recovering nicely. I aim to properly get back to my fitness goals on Monday - I needed to take a couple of weeks following the surgery to relax and let the eye heal - which mean very little impact on the body - including running etc. I am anxious to start again as my weight can go up very quickly - which I realise is my responsibility, and action is down to me.