Portsmouth’s Band of Brothers benefits from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Community Foundation funding

The independent charitable foundation targets its grant making exclusively on the vital work of small charities, community groups and voluntary organisations across Hampshire - including Portsmouth and Southampton - and the Isle of Wight.

All grant funding awarded aligns with HIWCF’s six priority areas which include helping communities to flourish, health and wellbeing, crime and safety, environment, poverty and inequality, and employment and skills.

The greatest level of grant funding went to community-based employability programmes in the region, which benefitted from more than £800,000 worth of support.

Unemployment rates according to Office of National Statistics on benefit claimant data for Portsmouth and Southampton are higher than the national average, which was echoed in the number of applications to HIWCF for funding towards community projects helping people towards work.

In addition, more than £476,000 was distributed to groups working to improve health and wellbeing and £333,000 was allocated to projects helping communities to flourish, including support for Ukrainian refugees.

One community project to benefit was Portsmouth-based A Band of Brothers, a male mentor-mentee project focused on breaking the cycle of self-destructive and anti-social behaviour among some young men.

In its most recently published study, ABoB reported that 81% of participants showed an improvement in levels of self-esteem and self-worth, there was a 73% increase in participants being in employment, education or training and paid employment rose from 7% to over 50%. The proportion of young men with severe addiction issues dropped from 51% to 14%.

Further details from hiwcf.org.uk or [email protected]