(Photo credit for picture Helen Maybanks/Combat Stress 2018)

Combat Stress is the UK’s leading charity for veterans’ mental health. More than 2,000 veterans reach out to Combat Stress each year. For a century, they’ve helped former servicemen and women deal with trauma-related mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Combat Stress provide life-changing treatment to veterans from every service and every conflict. On the phone and online. In the community and at their specialist centres. Combat Stress know that invisible injuries can be just as hard to cope with as physical ones, their services help veterans cope with the present, tackle the past and take on the future. The Foundation awarded Combat Stress £9,000 towards their community mental health services for veterans in Bristol.

Combat Stress

National Youth Choir Great Britain (NYCGB) was originally founded as a single ensemble of 100 singers, and now comprises of five constituent choirs with an annual membership of approximately 800. NYCGB run residential education courses over the spring and summer, offering young people aged between 9-25, the opportunity to engage with professional conductors, musicianship and vocal coaches and guest artists, whilst also being supported by pastoral care staff. All courses culminate in one or more concert performances, and include opportunities to appear in digital recordings, music videos and broadcasts. The Foundation awarded £4,000 towards supporting aspiring young singers from Bristol to participate in the 2019 Residential Training Programmes.

NYCGB

Marie Curie provide care and support for more than 50,000 terminally ill people and their families in the UK each year. Marie Curie nurses work night and day, in people’s homes across the UK, providing hands-on care and vital emotional support. Their hospices offer specialist round-the-clock care, and they help people throughout their illness by giving practical information, support from trained volunteers and being there when someone wants to talk. In 2017/2018 the Marie Curie nursing team in Bristol provided expert care to 226 people living with a terminal illness at home. The Foundation awarded Marie Curie £22,300 towards the cost of vital care at home for residents of the City of Bristol.

Marie Curie

Bristol-based artisanal bakery, Step and Stone was founded by Jane Chong and Jane Kippax to address the gap in employment opportunities for young people with learning disabilities. From their Kitchen in Knowle they lead a team of more than 20 young adults with learning disabilities to make and sell handmade lavosh flatbreads, helping to develop their skills and confidence so they can eventually find employment in the mainstream catering world. The Foundation recently awarded Step and Stone £9,422 towards renting their kitchen and essential equipment.

Step and Stone

Crisis Centre Ministries is a charity whose purpose is transforming lives through offering food, shelter, hope and support to the most vulnerable and marginalised in Bristol. Crisis Centre Ministries is made up of four main projects:

The Wild Goose drop-in centre: provides people with a hot meal, practical support and signposting to other appropriate voluntary and council services. Open four days and six evenings a week.

The Life Recovery project: helps clients who are recovering from addiction and abuse through mutual support and the development of life skills.

The Spring of Hope women's night shelter: provides emergency accommodation and emotional and practical support to women fleeing from abuse, homelessness and sex work.

The East Bristol Foodbank provides short-term emergency food provision to those in extreme need.

The Foundation recently awarded £25,000 to help support these four projects in Bristol.

Crisis Centre Ministries