Supporting the lives of older people in Bristol and the surrounding area has been part of the vision for St Monica Trust since it began 100 years ago. Today our Community Giving team helps tackle a variety of issues by distributing hundreds of thousands of pounds to individuals, families and organisations across the region. We provide gifts and grants that go directly to those who will benefit the most and we are committed to helping more people by increasing our giving over the next few years.
As we start to slowly emerge from lockdown and see a desire to return to ‘normal’, there is increasing concern around the impact lockdown has had on older people’s physical and mental health and how this may impact their ability to re-engage with society.
A recent study carried out by the King's Fund states that there is a significant gap in mental health services for older people who are often poorly served.
There is already a lot of good work being carried out to help older people to re-engage with their community. However, after consulting and engaging with various stakeholders, there is a consensus that a more immediate challenge is to support older people who are suffering from mental health issues developed through lockdown, including anxiety, depression and loss of confidence.
The St Monica Trust Charitable Impact Team is proud to announce its Mental Health and Older People Fund 2021 and is looking to fund at least five organisations for up to £45,000 over a period of 18 months - enough time to establish a project with a target of 12 months plus of actual delivery.
We aim to fund projects that reach the most vulnerable older people living in Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.
We are looking for projects that address inequalities, support and empower older people to understand their mental health issues and to improve their overall quality of life.
Priority will be given to bids that:
• Empower older people.
• Have a strong input from older people into the shaping of the project.
• Engage with other services and collaborative models such as the Bristol Support Hub or similar collective approaches.
• Connect with existing health provision.
• Address inequality and/or promote diversity through its delivery.
• Have considered the sustainability and longevity of the project.
Please read our application guidelines and monitoring impact overview and complete our application form, returning the completed form via email to charitableimpact@stmonicatrust.org.uk by the closing date of midday on Friday, 13 August 2021.
Application Guidelines
Application Form
Monitoring Impact Overview
If you have any questions regarding the Mental health and Older People Fund, please contact charitableimpact@stmonicatrust.org.uk
Our aim is to help you live independently in your own community for as long as possible. We do this by helping you with items that you need, or by supporting you through a financial crisis.
We help people who satisfy the following criteria:
We help in two ways: we might provide you with a gift or we may offer you a short-term grant of monthly financial support to help you through a crisis. Whichever way we help, it will not affect your benefits, tax credits or tax.
A gift is a one-off item that we provide to you. We can help with a range of items, including:
This list doesn’t cover everything. We will always consider helping with anything that is going to make a positive difference to your everyday life.
Unfortunately, there are things which we can’t help with. These include:
A short-term grant is a monthly payment that is designed to help you through a crisis. The average grant is £110 per month, for an average of three to six months.
The kinds of issues we provide grants for are:
This is not an exhaustive list. Unfortunately, we cannot help with ongoing daily living costs.
We ask everyone who wants our help to fill in an application form. You can either complete the form online or contact us to request a paper copy in the post. If you have any difficulties filling it in, please contact the community fund team on 0117 949 4003 and we will be happy to assist.
Please note that due to an increase in demand our turn-around for individual giving is approximately four weeks.
The most common reason we turn down applications is because people do not meet our criteria. Please make sure that you check our criteria before you apply. If you are not sure whether to apply, please contact the community fund team to discuss your situation and we will be happy to advise you.
Speak to a member of our team
Make a funding application for individual giving online
If you have any questions or would like to talk to us, you can contact the Community Giving team on 0117 949 4003 or email charitableimpact@stmonicatrust.org.uk
