The Jericho Foundation is one of ten charities to receive £50,000 as part of Ecclesiastical’s Movement for Good awards.
The awards, set up by specialist insurer Ecclesiastical, have seen a total of £1million given to charities across the UK this summer. 500 have already been awarded donations of £1,000 and now 10 charitable organisations will benefit from £50,000 grants.
The Jericho Foundation, which supports people to become fulfilled, skilled and employed, was one of the 10 selected from nearly 800 entries1.
The fund will allow the charity to set up its Equiano Foundations project, which will offer skills-based training to survivors of modern slavery to help them find work and reduce the risk of re-exploitation.
Each of the £50,000 awards are designed to help charities take innovative projects to the next level in the fields of education, skills, arts, culture and heritage, as well as citizenship or community development.
Mark Hews, Group CEO of Ecclesiastical, said: “Ecclesiastical is unlike any other financial services group. Owned by a charity, our core purpose is to contribute to the greater good of society. Charitable giving is therefore at the heart of our business and we are proud to be the fourth largest corporate donor in the UK. Each of these £50,000 awards will fund innovative projects and good ideas that will help make people’s lives better.
“This summer our Movement for Good awards has motivated over 100,000 members of the public across the UK to support and nominate causes close to their heart. Now we are excited to see how this next financial boost will create a lasting legacy for all the award winners.”
Katie Webb at The Jericho Foundation added “We are absolutely thrilled with the news of the win. We see any donation as great leverage and it really enables us to talk to other funders and develop the work further.
“This money will give us an opportunity to test, pilot, develop, and evolve what we are doing.
“What we have been able to provide to date is a project which provides legitimate employment as part of a recovery process for survivors of modern slavery. However, not everyone who gets referred to our project is ready for work, so our aim with the Equiano Foundation is to help people who are a bit earlier in their recovery – so, the immediate beneficiaries of this award will be survivors of modern slavery who are just starting their journey to recovery.”
An amazing 98,000 people around the UK supported the Movement for Good awards during its first phase earlier this year, with over 7,000 charitable causes up and down the country receiving votes. The 500 winning charities were picked at random from those nominated.
Phase two saw 800 project submissions for the £50,000 awards. Following a review of all the applications, over 20,000 people showed support for a shortlist of 15 charities before a panel of judges made their final selection of the winning projects2.
Owned by a charity, Ecclesiastical is the only financial services group that exists to give all its available profits to charity. It has given £100million to charity over the past five years and is the fourth largest corporate giver in the UK3.
For further information on the Movement for Good Awards and for a full list of the winning charities phase visit: www.ecclesiastical.com/movement-for-good.
