The Rye Fund congratulates the winners in its latest round of annual grant awards. These include: Camber Community Group, £500; Counselling Plus, £500; Playden WI, £700; Rother Youth Group, £900; Rye & District Community Transport £700; Rye & District Dementia Action Alliance, £500; Rye Harbour Sailing Club, £1,000; Rye Wurlitzer Academy, £500 and Rye Museum Association, £500.
The Rye Fund founded in 2008, is an endowment fund from which annual interest accrued goes to support grants to charities and community groups that benefit the local community, with an emphasis on improving social, cultural and educational provision, and promoting the well-being and viability of the town. Since 2009, the Fund has given 62 grants to 36 groups, totaling £37,437. A formal presentation of the awards will take place on Wednesday, January 18, 2017 in the Town Hall.
To illustrate one example of the successful requests for grant aid assistance, we quote from the Sussex Giving Donor Report recently published by the Sussex Community Foundation. In a report on the Rye & District Community Transport (RDCT), it says “The percentage of the population in Rother aged over 75 is 16.99 per cent almost twice the average in England and Wales. At the same time, Rother has five wards ranked in the top 10 per cent ‘most deprived’ on the ‘distance to shop’ indicator. On the ground, we know this means many lonely and isolated older people. Community initiatives, such as Rye & District Community Transport (RDCT) which has previously received three £1,000 grants from the Rye Fund, are vital.”
“RDCT exists to find solutions to transport problems and to try to plug gaps in local transport provision for our community,” says organiser Pat Hughes. “We are committed to providing low-cost transport. In this rural area, passenger numbers are lower and distances higher than in towns and the problems of social and economic isolation are very prevalent. Over 20 years, we have developed a range of services to tackle these problems. We provide very low cost transport to small village primary schools, a Dial-a-Ride service provides door-to-door transport for those with mobility difficulties and also a scheduled bus service, the 326, in and around Rye.”
Photo: Sussex Community Foundation
Image Credits: Rye and District Community Transport .