Legacy Project brings boost for charities

From left to right: Paul Carpenter and Jimi Duffy, St Sidwells Community Project; David Bird, Exeter Chiefs Foundation Trustee; Damian Cook, Property Ball Committee; Katie Chantler, Hospiscare; Tony Rowe OBE, Chairman, Exeter Chiefs Foundation; Julian Tagg, Chairman, Exeter City Community Trust; Dan Osbourne, Jay’s Aim.

Three organisations will benefit from a unique £150,000 charitable fund established by Exeter’s professional rugby and football clubs, alongside the city’s property community.

The Exeter Legacy Project 2022 has been created through a collaboration between The Exeter Chiefs Foundation, Exeter City Community Trust and the Exeter Property Summer Ball – with each organisation contributing £50,000 to the fund.

Organisations with charitable aims or community causes based in the Greater Exeter were invited to apply for grants up to a total of £150,000 and three have been successful. The announcement was made at the Exeter Property Summer Ball on Friday July 1. The three organisations to benefit from the fund are:

• Hospiscare, which will receive £84,000 towards building a wellbeing hub at Searle House in Exeter. The hub will provide a space for patients and those close to them for a variety of sessions to help them through their illness, and support those close to them before, during and after death through the organisation’s bereavement work. Hospiscare is matching the funding from the Legacy Project to pay for the hub.
• Jay’s Aim, which will receive £37,000 to provide 25 public access defibrillators and CPR/AED training to local communities.
• St Sidwell’s Community Centre, which will receive £29,000 to transform its existing garden. The project will entail building a large greenhouse, creating new storage and other works to improve the garden area which will enable the centre to offer workshops, opportunities and training towards employment. It will improve safety and reduce anti-social behaviour, as well as enhance the area for the public.

All organisations submitting applications had to satisfy at least one of the following criteria: Contribute to the relief of poverty; help the advancement of education; take care of the elderly, sick or infirm; support disadvantaged, individuals, children and families; and promote physical, intellectual, social and spiritual wellbeing.

Katie Chantler, director of fundraising and marketing at Hospiscare, said: “We are over the moon that Hospiscare’s project has been selected as one of the Legacy projects – this will mean a huge amount to patients going through one of the toughest times in life, giving them a very special space in our garden offering peace, calm and comfort.”

Dan Osborne from Jay’s Aim said the team was delighted to be selected for a grant. He added: “We couldn’t be more excited to work with these fantastic organisations over the coming months to provide 25 public access defibrillators, as well as CPR/AED training to local communities, that will ensure the safety and advance the education of thousands of people across the Greater Exeter area.”

A spokesperson for St Sidwell’s Community Centre said: “We are delighted to have been awarded a grant from the Legacy Project. This will allow us to achieve a long-held ambition of expanding our gardening programme with a large greenhouse to provide more training opportunities. It will also help to improve our grounds for the benefit of the whole community.”

The three organisations behind the Legacy Project 2022 are the Exeter Chiefs Foundation, which is the Exeter Chiefs rugby club’s charity; Exeter City Community Trust, the partner charity of Exeter City Football Club, and the Exeter Property Ball, which was launched in 2002 and has raised more than £450,000 for local and regional charities.

A spokesman for the Legacy Project 2022 organisations, said: “We are delighted to support these three very different, but very worthwhile causes. Through Exeter Chiefs and Exeter City, and particularly our associated charities, we support and connect with hundreds of thousands of people and joining with the Property Ball has enabled us to do even more through this Legacy Project.”