South West Community Benefit Fund: Rise:61
About this project
Rise:61 has worked with young people on the Bemerton Estate, Salisbury since 2014. The organisation works with young people in difficult circumstances to help them improve their skills and aspirations and tell a different story to their lives.
Operating since 2014 the aim of Rise:61 is to help young people on Bemerton Heath tell a different story to their lives. The organisation aims to work with young people in difficult circumstances to help them to improve their skills and aspirations.
Bemerton Heath, Salisbury is one of the 5% most deprived wards in England and is the second most deprived ward in Wiltshire. The area has challenges with educational achievement, employment, and income levels. The young people of the estate say that there is nothing for them to do in Bemerton. There have been significant cuts to services in the area and there is a general lack of facilities for young people who struggle with educational attainment and securing places in further education.
One of the flagship projects that Rise:61 has been operating is the Bike Hub - where young people learn to fix, sell, and ride bikes. They also have a creative hub where the organisation assists their community to recover through art and creativity, something especially important in enabling people to recover
from the pandemic. They also enable young people to access support around mental wellbeing. The organisation undertakes detached youth work and has a community garden built alongside the residents in memory of a young person from the estate who was lost due to suicide.
Request for funding
The grant has enabled the organisation to set up the nationally recognised AQA award for the young people to have a recognised qualification in the skills they achieve.
The funds will also be used to enable more staff to train to be recognised award leaders. In one year, this funding supported Rise:61 to get 10-20 young people through the award with the help of four trained staff members.
Meeting the aims of the fund
Bemerton Heath, despite being in Wiltshire and near to Salisbury is an area of great need as the statistics reveal. Young people have been badly affected not only by ongoing deprivation but by the effects of the Covid pandemic.
Rise:61 was nominated by Wiltshire Council and is supported by them for their work in providing young people on the estate with skills and purpose.
The grant will assist young people to get a nationally recognised qualification and is a very inspirational move and shows the progress that this organisation can make with the young people who attend.
This application meets all the aims of the Community Fund and is clearly within the criteria.
The purpose of the fund
SWPA work with our members and South West Community Matters to distribute grants of up to £1,000 to local projects and causes.
The overall aim of the programme is to increase community facilities and community benefits particularly for those most in need, in local communities.
The focus is on activities that enable people from diverse backgrounds to become engaged in their neighbourhoods and communities and to support those organisations that are bringing about real change to the lives of the people who live in those communities.
