Clapgate Community Fund

Grant awarded £5,000 in 2020 contributing to installaion of a solar dome for community use:

"Clapgate Primary School is a school in inner city Leeds. We have been working hard to improve the  mental heath of our children and that of our local families by using the Solar Dome. This is a tranquil indoor space outside, which we are using for clubs, mindfulness, performances and other events. Our children love the space and our families have for the first time since Covid had somewhere to come and take part in a range of activities, having a positive impact on the local community." 

Farsley Rehoboth

Grants awarded in 2019 and 2020 towards restoration of the Rehoboth

"Our Registered Charity, (Number 1182468) was established in March 2019 to purchase, reclaim and maintain this historic ground and make accessible as a community asset. Our work commenced with the purchase of the Rehoboth on 31st May 2019. For many, many years there had been no access for relatives to visit graves without trespass. The neglect of the Burial Ground had been considerable. The only entrance on Coal Hill Lane was padlocked and inaccessible.

We are now into our third year of the reclamation and maintenance. Developments include a completed  fully accessible surfaced route both horizontally and vertically within the Rehoboth. We call this path “Wade’s Way.

In 2021 we  uncovered a Victorian carriageway which for many years had been the location for fly-tipping. Much has been achieved with your support and the assistance from your 2020 and 2019 grants. The local community will continue to benefit from your funding as it helps deliver a project that has been described as “galvanising the local community”."

Middleton Park Equestrian Centre

Grants of £5000 awarded in 2020 and 2021

"Middleton Park Equestrian Centre provides Riding & Carriage Driving lessons to Disabled &  Non-Disabled clients. We are situated on the edge of Middleton Park and often take our riders through risk assessed paths in the Park. We have three arenas, one indoors and one covered that we use for daily lessons and we currently have 15 horses of varying size. The grant we received from Wades helped us with the cost of keeping the horses whilst our income was substantially reduced due to the pandemic.

We are now slowly building back our client base and regular lessons."

Andrea is riding  Darcy and she has been coming to the Centre for over 15 years. She also continued to support the Centre during the pandemic even though she could not attend.

New Wortley Community Association

Grant of £3500 in 2020

New Wortley Community Association provides projects, services and support that promotes the well-being of inhabitants of New Wortley and the neighbourhood, aiming to improve their health, education, social and recreational opportunities. The Women’s Walking Group project meets weekly, providing an opportunity for participants to come together, make friends, and talk about mental health issues they may be facing in a safe, inclusive environment.

The project take a person-centred approach to address the issues around loneliness, mental health and feelings of exclusion and worthlessness. Participants lead the project having the opportunity to suggest walking routes and actively look for opportunities to get involved in local campaigns, such as litter picking and community clean ups.  

Andrea Edwards CEO of New Wortley Community Association commented “ This project enabled us to build and maintain positive relationships with some of the most isolated members of the community and also enabled us to integrate them into other appropriate projects and services promoting positive mental health, and tackling loneliness and isolation.  It enabled people to feel part of a community, and have a sense of belonging and identity which is hugely confidence boosting.  This has been particularly important during a time of lockdowns and restrictions.  The project allowed the group to meet outdoors and support each other when it was most needed”

The Hunslet Club

Grant of £5000 in 2020

From Dennis Robbins CEO: 

'The Hunslet Club is a children’s charity based in South Leeds, the club was formed in 1940 and has worked with 1000’s of young people across the City with the clear aim to help young people reach their full potential.

Funding from Wade’s has enabled the Hunslet Club to provide additional youth sessions for young people aged 13+, qualified youth and intervention workers are on site to work with young people and support them with issues they may have such as anxiety, stress, drug, drink and any other mental health problem . Activity workers deliver fun and entertaining sessions in dance, football, weight training, drama, food tech and games. The youth sessions are 5 nights each week from 4.30-9pm, also provided for all attendees is a free healthy meal and drinks.'

See video link below: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2QVWgxkIkA

Leeds Dads

Grant of £2500 in 2020

"Leeds Dads supports local Dads to feel confident playing an active roles as parents and forming strong and positive relationships with their pre-school children. Through providing opportunities for peer support, we enable Dads to learn from each other's experiences, feel less isolated and build lasting connections. 

Our Wades grant enabled us to run a programme of socially distanced walks for Dads and their children in local parks around Leeds. These were a life-line to the 88 Dads who attended, many of whom had been experiencing isolation and poor mental health during the pandemic. Getting out of the house and enjoying nature was really positive for Dads' wellbeing, and walking in a group made them feel more confident and more connected to others. We were also able to deliver a family picnic in Roundhay Park, providing a fun afternoon for 16 local families."

Flourishing Families

Every family deserves to flourish! Flourishing Families Leeds exists to bring down the barriers that prevent families from flourishing. We are a growing charity that’s passionate about helping children and families overcome challenges, painting a brighter horizon for the future together. We want to see children growing in confidence and fulfilling their potential, parents well supported and whole families equipped to connect well with each other and the community. We believe prevention is far better than cure. This is why we work with primary school-aged children and their families living in areas of the city ranked among the most deprived 1-5% nationally. We help  tackle root issues that would otherwise be barriers to flourishing later in life. We empower families to overcome the challenges of low confidence and self-esteem, poor nutrition, food poverty, low levels of literacy and financial literacy, and social exclusion.

There are 180,000 people in Leeds who live in deprived areas and, as a result, have an average life expectancy of up to 12 years less than  those living in more affluent areas. Poor diet is a major contributing factor. Food poverty, a lack basic cookery skills and little understanding of how to afford a nutritious diet mean that families resort to cheap high fat and sugar readymade meals and snacks. Childhood obesity has become the most pressing health issue for these families. Our Cooking up Change Project funded by the Wade’s Charity saw us take on this challenge during the pandemic by moving our successful in-person family cookery clubs to online and, alongside, developing new support groups for parents and carers. The results were fantastic! The online cookery groups used YouTube videos, easy-to-read recipe cards, home delivery of ingredients and doorstep support. We found that every one of the families were regularly repeating recipes. We are beating food poverty and poor nutrition meal by meal!

Hyde Park Source

Our Rosebank Adult Group - Your support enabled us to buy Activity materials and equipment for our weekly gardening group. We managed to run this 45 times during the time period of this grant, which covered the time of the national lockdowns. When we were able to restart the groups the feedback we got from group members was that the activity was essential to rebuilding confidence and maintaining mental health at an extremely challenging time for all of us.

One of the volunteers said, ‘I really enjoyed the group and it kept me going mentally throughout lockdown. I always came away feeling so positive and happy to spend time with such lovely people. You provide such a welcoming and lovely space for everybody to come and help and feel at ease. Thank you!’

Rosebank Rangers - Your support enabled us to buy Activity materials and equipment for our weekly after school Rosebank Rangers group. We ran 30 of these groups during the time of this grant. Again, in the context of a national lockdown these sessions were even more important in reconnecting children and their families to each other and their local green space.

Rosebank Woodland Day - We held a Woodland Day in conjunction with Leeds Coppice Workers this August, with volunteers from both the Our Rosebank group and one of the OAW groups.   

The main focus was installing a new bench besides a raised bed at the top of the Orchard area.  This is a great viewpoint looking overlooking Hyde Park, Armley and beyond. The bench placement had been discussed with the volunteers and local people as the best place to allow more people to rest and enjoy the view at the top of the steps.

Volunteers really enjoyed the day, one volunteer in particular, H has since mentioned it several times, with a big smile about how he helped move woodchip and helped dig the deep holes needed for the bench posts.

Whilst holding our weekly Our Rosebank sessions we have seen local residents making use of the bench as well as being used by volunteers when needing a break from all their hard work!

Rosebank Apple Day - We held a Rosebank Apple Day on Sunday, 31st October and despite torrential rain to start with, everyone had a great time with enough apple for everyone to have a good taste and take a bottle home!

We held a smaller event due to current circumstances and had a good amount of people attending, 15-20 volunteers from our Rosebank Rangers children’s, the adults Our Rosebank and Lost Plot groups as well as local people who have previously come along.  The children were able to take responsibility for using a knife; chopping lots of apples, as well as using the scratter and apple press. Everyone showed fantastic commitment and team work as we kept the apple juice production line going! One of the parents said,

‘It’s so nice to find out events like this happen in our community and to get involved. This is all new to me and we are really enjoying ourselves me and my son today. Thank you to everyone at HPS for making an effort to do things like this’

Thanks for this grant we have been able to hold a Rosebank Woodland Day and install a wonderful bench installed by local group volunteers, for the enjoyment of all and make the most of a wet day with some dedicated helpers for some fantastic apple pressing for our annual Apple Day, on Rosebank Millennium Green.

Once again, many thanks for your support and your flexibility during the uncertainty of the Pandemic. Without the support of Wades we would not have been able to deliver many of our projects and we are very grateful for your continued support.

Adel War Memorial Association

Adel War Memorial Association is a registered charity established just after the First World War as a way of bringing local people together. With premises in Adel, North Leeds, our aim is to promote social inclusion and wellbeing by providing a wide range of recreational facilities, unique in the area, for the benefit of over 1300 members of the local community. This covers Adel in the main, but we have members who attend from further afield particularly around north-west Leeds. We cater for all ages and backgrounds, providing diverse sporting facilities along with a wide range of social and cultural opportunities. These include a highly regarded amateur drama company, offering several productions a year in our community hall. In addition, we have a range of meeting rooms hosting activities such as dance classes, fitness programmes and pre-school socialisation. Many local activity groups use us as a base.

We are very grateful for the support from Wade's Charity which enabled us to refit and refurbish a meeting room so that we can cater for a wider range of activities to the benefit all who use our facilities. The improvements have been very well received and in addition to enhancing our activities we envisage that the new facilities will attract outside hirers, thus providing a valuable additional income stream to support our finances and allow further new developments.

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