Local good causes to receive more than £16,000 of project funding from Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport’s Community Trust Fund has pledged to donate more than £16,000 to a variety of community-led projects at its latest quarterly meeting.

The Community Trust Fund was set up in 1997 and is managed by a committee of trustees from the area, alongside representatives from the airport, which pays £100,000 per year into the fund.

Groups based within 10 miles of the airport, which covers parts of Manchester, Tameside, Trafford, Stockport and Cheshire, are able to bid for up to £3,000 for initiatives with a clear and lasting community benefit.

Among more than a dozen to benefit from the latest round of funding is Read Easy Stockport, a group dedicated to helping adults learn to read. The charity estimates that there are 2.4 million adults in England alone – over 7% of the working age population – who struggle with reading or cannot read at all. Read Easy Stockport has been awarded more than £700 in funding to purchase new reading materials.

Fiona Clear, a fundraiser for the group, said: “Read Easy Stockport offers weekly one-to-one reading coaching sessions to any adult in the local area who finds reading challenging. Our reading coaches are all local volunteers, who commit their time for up to two years.

“The donation from Manchester Airport’s Community Trust Fund will enable us to purchase additional books and resources, which will help to make learning to read fun, and to overcome a fear of text, which can be a barrier to learning to read fluently.”

Longsight-based We Matter CIC is also set to receive a grant, totalling just under £2,000, for ten brand-new sewing machines.

Naheed Akhtar, a volunteer for We Matter CIC, explained: “Sewing is an activity that many find therapeutic and is a skill that can lead to all sorts of creativity and a great sense of achievement.

“We are grateful to the Manchester Community Trust Fund for kindly awarding us funding to purchase some sewing machines which will allow us to deliver more activities within our communities.”

Friends of Woodstock Park, in Altrincham, will get more than £1,700 towards a picnic table, and new planters.

Ulrich Savary, a volunteer with Friends of Woodstock Park, said: “The refurbishment of Woodstock Park is not just a project; it is a testament to what a united community can achieve.

“With this donation, we can now continue the necessary improvements that will make the park a safer, more attractive, and more inviting place for everyone in the community. These funds will go a long way in adding new, inviting spaces for families to gather and maintaining the park's greenery for generations to come.”

Hope Central, a Christian charity dedicated to tackling hunger and poverty in Cheshire, received a grant to help fit out its new Knutsford food bank with racking.

Ian Robertson, a Trustee at Hope Central, said: “Our two food banks in northeast Cheshire are central to our objective of relieving the impact and the causes of poverty. Having moved one of them to a new home in Knutsford where space is at a premium, the grant from Manchester Airport has enabled us to fit out an ergonomic and safe space for our volunteers to work in.

“With this done, we can continue to deliver our other services, including a Debt Centre, Money Management, a Job Club, Fresh Start and Life Skills courses and weekly drop-in centres. All of our services are free and available to everyone.”

The full list of organisations to be awarded a grant at this month’s meeting, and what they will be using the money for, can be found below.

Robert Pattison, Head of Community Engagement at Manchester Airport, said: "Supporting good causes in our neighbouring communities is very important to us at Manchester Airport, and to see such a wide range of local charities and initiatives benefitting from a Community Trust Fund grant is fantastic news. We have now made over £4 million worth of donations since the Community Trust Fund was established and will continue to do all we can to ensure that neighbouring communities share in the benefits of the airport’s success.” 

Details on how to apply for a Community Trust Fund grant, and the full criteria, can be found here. The trustees will next meet on Monday 8th January, and applications for funding to be considered at the next meeting must be submitted by Friday 17th November.

Grants awarded in October 2023