The Environment Trust has been awarded £5,000 to fund a year’s worth of workdays for nature conservation volunteers in Kingston.
The donation was provided by the Santander Foundation, which offers Discovery Grants to UK registered charities for projects that help disadvantaged people in local communities.
The Environment Trust was founded in 1984 with the aim to ‘inspire love of local places’, working to conserve both the built and natural heritage across South West London. The charity works with the local community to improve parks and nature reserves and enhance the public greenspace. It also partners with local schools to teach environmental studies and offers activities for people with special needs.
The grant will enable the Trust to run volunteer workdays throughout Kingston. The charity will work with young people, those who are unemployed and retired people to help them engage with the outdoors, learn new skills and make new friends. This activity aims to allow vulnerable people to interact with their environment and feel a sense of pride in their local area.
Berny Simcox, CEO at The Environment Trust, said: “This is a truly fantastic opportunity that will not only help us to improve our local environment, but also enable us to connect with and inspire people across Kingston, some of whom may have very limited contact with the outdoors and the community around them.”
Rekha Gurung, Santander Local Business Manager for the Kingston region, who has previously volunteered with the Environment Trust, said: “The Santander Foundation makes hundreds of donations every year to good causes throughout the UK. We are committed to playing a key part in the community and we are delighted to be supporting The Environment Trust, and hope the donation makes a real difference to local people.”
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Notes to Editors:
Media Contact
Leonora Burtenshaw at Santander
Email: Leonora.burtenshaw@santander.co.uk Tel: 020 7756 4543
Elliot Newton at The Environment Trust
Email: elliot.newton@environmenttrust.co.uk
About:
The Environment Trust
The Environment Trust is unique in looking after both the natural and built environment, inspiring love of local places, working with communities to foster inclusion and improve skills and inspiring stewards of the future. For more information please visit: www.environmenttrust.co.uk
Santander Foundation
The Santander Foundation is at the heart of the Bank’s community activities, providing grants to small charities and social enterprises working with disadvantaged people to fund skills, knowledge and innovation projects across the UK. Discovery Grants of up to £5,000 are available to support three types of activity:
- Explorer: improving people’s knowledge
- Transformer: supporting skills and experience
- Changemaker: innovative solutions to social challenges
Over the last five years, the Santander Foundation has provided £26 million in funding to 13,914 UK charities through Discovery Grants and Staff Matched Donations. For more information please visit: www.santanderfoundation.org.uk
Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 31 December 2017, the bank serves around 14 million active customers with c19,500 employees and operates through 806 branches (which includes 61 university branches) and 64 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.