School holiday activity fund benefits children in North London
Howard Lake | 14 August 2022 | News
Grantmaking trust John Lyon’s Charity is providing funding to help children in North and West London to enjoy activities during their summer holidays.
The trust believes that all children should have the opportunity to enjoy their summer holidays, whether it’s a trip to the beach, sports activities, camping or other exciting visits out of London. Of course, not all children are able to experience these types of opportunities.
To bridge this gap the charity offers a School Holiday Activity Fund to registered charities or mainstream state schools that are based in the trust’s beneficial area.
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John Lyon’s Charity gives grants to benefit children and young people up to the age of 25 who live in nine boroughs in North and West London. The School Holiday Activity Fund is designed to enable organisations to deliver fun and accessible activities for children and young people during all school holidays, including all half-term breaks, Easter, Christmas and the summer holiday.
To remind many children’s groups of this important funding opportunity, the charity has sent its popular mascot John the Lyon on a special “safari tour” to surprise children and young people who benefit from the Fund.
How the fund has helped
In the past, this Fund has enabled trips to the beach, to theme parks and to theatres and many other adventures, most of which many children and young people have never had the opportunity to experience before.
Stonegrove Estates Youth Project (SEYP) had a visit from John the Lyon earlier this month after receiving a School Holiday Activity Fund grant.
Samantha Scott, Youth Director at SEYP said:
“It was great fun welcoming John the Lyon to Stonegrove Estates Youth Project summer activities and great for him to judge our Master Chef finals. The beneficiaries respected his decision, after all who’s going to argue with a lyon! Without funding from charities such as John Lyon’s Charity, children and families would struggle and experience even more financial hardship particularly at a time when they should be enjoying themselves during the summer break. Charitable funding supports the delivery of sociable learning activities in a safe environment, which in turn supports improved mental health for children, young people and their parents. We couldn’t be more grateful to John Lyon’s Charity.”
John Lyon’s Charity has distributed over £171 million in grants to a range of organisations across North and West London that seek to promote the life-chances of children and young people through education.
The next funding application deadline is 21 September for the October half-term holiday.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.