Highest ever donations in June's Cherries Community Fund donations

£17,140 was distributed into the local community by the Fund. At each home game, supporters can purchase tickets, priced at £1, to go into the draw. The more tickets you buy, the more chance you have of winning, with all proceeds going directly into the Cherries Community Fund.

The Fund, set up by the club, has provided financial assistance to projects that help to develop young people and vulnerable groups, or those that promote sport and a healthy lifestyle in Bournemouth.

Here’s how the panel of Jeff Mostyn, Marc Pugh and Steve Cuss, distributed the funding:

£1,000 was donated to Sopley School to assist with funding for outdoor equipment including an “A frame climber with safagrass” and agility/trim trail features for all children to use.

£900 was donated to the Poole Hospital charity to purchase two smart TV’s and Xboxes for the teenager and young adult rooms on the Durlston Ward at Poole Hospital, on behalf of the “A Vision for Vincent charity”.

A donation of £1,000 to Adam Sevenoaks of Wessex Warriors to assist with the purchase of a strikeforce powerchair.

A donation of £840 to Shine Cancer Support charity to cover the cost of camping pitches for the Shine Camp. The Shine Camp is run in Dorset and provides the opportunity for young adults who have experienced a cancer diagnosis to spend time with their partners, children and friends while also meeting others who understand what they’re going through. The funds donated will cover the cost for 60 pitches which will help up to 120 participants.

£300 donated to Bournemouth Youth Poppies under-10s to assist with the purchase of football kit.

A donation of £1,000 was donated to Linwood School to assist with purchasing new equipment for football club, and in turn be able to extend the opportunity to continue football club during the holiday period. This service goes out to young people aged 5 – 18 years, who have a wide range of individual needs that include profound and severe learning difficulties, sensory needs, autism and Asperger’s syndromes as well as those with physical difficulties.

£1,000 donated to assist with the running of the Footprints Project. The Footprints project was set up alongside ex-offenders and those who are street homeless. It’s called Lifeworks and offers real opportunities to be mentored and gain skills for work. Participants commit to a minimum of 10 hours volunteering time a week to train skills such as woodwork, decorating, carpentry and horticulture then work on other charity buildings, gardens or meeting rooms and work towards becoming stable. As part of this project there is also a focus on the participant’s mental health, self-esteem and pro-social attitudes thereby increasing life chances and enhance communities.

A donation of £950 to Citizens Advice, Bournemouth to assist with the funding to train a volunteer in the accredited BSL Level 2 qualification, allowing the volunteer to be a communicator support worker, so that Bournemouth Citizens advice can provide advice to the deaf community. The Bournemouth citizens advise is one of the busiest advice agencies in Dorset and provides advice and guidance to over 10,966 people of Bournemouth and the surrounding areas dealing with nearly 15,000 different questions.

£750 was donated to Dorchester Town under-9s to assist with the cost of football kit.

£1,000 was donated to the Women’s refuge, Bournemouth to assist with funding to convert a garage into a computer room/hub for children to use, with the aim to provide 3 work stations that would give children the opportunity to learn, complete school/college work and also have fun in a safe environment.

A donation of £500 was given to the Starfish Mentoring project to assist with funding for activities. The starfish mentoring project is a programme for at risk young people in Bournemouth and Poole. The programme works alongside schools and the Local Authorities to identify and support individuals with both individual and group mentoring opportunities. Young people participating are aged between 7 and 14 and can be referred by schools, health or social workers, families or anyone else involved in supporting the wellbeing of the young person.

£1,000 was donated to assist with putting on various fundraising events to help raise money for treatment for Dan Hall. The fundraising events include Charity Golf Day, Ringwood Fire Station charity car wash, special lunch and raffle and various other events.

A donation of £1,000 to Montacute School to assist with funding the transformation of the new “roadway” into the school for imaginative play, and for specialised bikes. Monatcute School is a specialist school look after 75 young people with complex learning difficulties or disabilities. With the funding Montacute plan to purchase play panels, shop fronts and activity panels which will allow pupils to develop numerical and shape recognition skills in a fun and interactive way.

£1000 was donated to Safer Poole Partnerships to assist with funding their upcoming Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking conference. The conference will be hosted on the 5th October 2017 to raise local and regional awareness of modern day slavery and human trafficking, with a capacity of 1400 people and is free to attend.

A donation of £500 to the Open House project. The Open House project is run every Tuesday welcoming anyone with problems of debt, housing, and benefits. People attending get the opportunity to meet with volunteers and receive advice, emergency help and in some cases second hand furniture.

£500 donated to the summer play scheme at Fernheath play. This funding will assist the summer play project which is open during the summer holidays for children aged 5-12 living in West Howe and the surrounding areas. Children will have the opportunity to take part in a range of physical activities along with arts and crafts, board games and other activities. Fernheath play also aim to work alongside children with learning disabilities offering them a chance to play alongside their peers.

£1,000 donated to Healthwatch Dorset to assist with the funding of the Be Yourself Everybody Else is Taken Summer Tour. This project includes creative workshops with schools, colleges, universities, young carers and community groups to help discover the stresses of young people and the pressure of social expectations and their concerns about opening up about their problems. To further promote this project Healthwatch Dorset plan to carry out a summer tour displaying the artwork created to hospitals, youth clubs, children’s centres, libraries etc. across Dorset.

£1,000 donated to the drum fun project. The drum fun project is held every Tuesday for vulnerable adults suffering mental health, physical/mental abuse, dementia, learning difficulties, autism, Parkinson’s nd addiction issues. Drumming has been medically proven to help these issues and also gives people the opportunity to meet new people, banish loneliness and build self-esteem. The money donated will assist with running the project.

A donation of £1,000 to assist with purchasing IT equipment for the community choirs for people affected by cancer. The rising voices Wessex, are a charity for people affected by cancer. Singing as a choir can help people recover their physical and mental health and give them confidence and feelings of wellbeing, help with loneliness and social isolation. The are several costs involved in running the choirs, and the rising voices would like to use the funding to purchase better IT equipment on which to store and play music, printing lyrics and additional storage for equipment.

£1,000 donation to assist with the purchase of a strikeforce power chair for Liam Drummond at Wessex Warriors.

A donation of £900 to Bournemouth Samaritans to assist with the cost of purchasing new equipment to deliver essential training for volunteers.