Our Community Impact Fund supports It’s a Family Thing CIC
We are excited to announce our collaboration with It’s a Family Thing CIC, a community organisation running the Creative Dreams: Bilston project providing creative, arts and craft out-of-school activities for children and young people aged 5-12 in Wolverhampton. Activities are led by a diverse group of practitioners from different disciplines, with the aim of creating access, improving opportunities and increasing wellness.
Earlier this year, we awarded It’s a Family Thing CIC a grant of £910 through our Community Impact Fund. The project aims to reach 30 children and young people from families, including our GSA customers, who have little or no opportunities to engage in arts and culture. The goal is to offer enjoyable experiences while providing accessible opportunities to areas lacking in resources, where the benefits of the arts on physical, mental, and emotional health and wellbeing can be profound.
Our Community Impact Fund is an initiative designed to support customer groups, local charities, voluntary and community groups and organisations operating within our service areas. Through the fund we offer grants of up to £1,000 to projects that benefit our customers and the communities we work in.
Our Community Investment and Social Lead, Sian Every, has helped facilitate this partnership. Sian said: “I believe it’s incredibly important to invest in our communities and environments. Our collaboration with It’s a Family Thing CIC is a perfect example of what can be achieved when we work together.
“By supporting projects like Creative Dreams: Bilston, we’re helping to build stronger, healthier and more vibrant communities.”
Natalie Haslam, Project Manager of It’s a Family Thing CIC, said: “If we did not receive funding from GSA, we would not be able to run the project.
“This project is hyper local, meaning we provide regular holiday/weekend arts activities (mostly for free) on people’s doorsteps, creating opportunities for children and young people to take part - all led by high quality artists. Our goal is to connect people (families, children and young people) together, promote social cohesion, reduce isolation especially for single parents, and contribute towards placemaking - making Wolverhampton a more vibrant place to live and learn.
“This project could help foster more inclusive behaviours and attitudes which would ultimately go towards narrowing the gap between different social groups.”
