The City Bridge Trust has paid out £85,000 to another pair of good causes in the Capital, with the board reiterating their desire to help support as many London-focussed organisations as possible. The Chinese National Healthy Living Centre, based in Westminster, has banked £80,000 courtesy of the Corporation’s charitable arm to provide assistance for people who have dementia.
Staff at the centre say the funding will go towards the cost of a full-time co-ordinator, plus the running costs of its London Chinese Dementia & Alzheimer’s Project. Eddie Chan, who is a director at the organisation, said the support will allow her team to apply their “unique capacity” to continue supporting the London Chinese community. She added: “We will also make good use of this extended time to create sustainability to this programme for the future.”
Meanwhile, £5,000 has been donated to the Memory Lane Singing Club; an organisation that provides a service to isolated members of the community with the aim of bringing joy to residents in care homes across Barnet.
The group comprises around 35 members who meet on a weekly basis, and the financial package will be used to subsidise shows – of which there are six to eight each year – over the next two years. Treasurer at Memory Lane Singing Club, Valerie Cowan, said: “Our aim is to develop singing skills, encourage a sense of belonging and entertain in the community.
We perform in care homes, day centres and for the isolated elderly. “The grant from City Bridge Trust enables us to fund our performances for the next two years and in doing so bring enormous pleasure not just to our audiences but to our singers as well.
“None of us can imagine a Friday when we don’t sing. Not only that but we all benefit from the therapeutic effects of singing as we are all seniors ourselves – it all helps to keep us young at heart.” City Bridge Trust has awarded more than 7,300 grants totalling more than £344million to organisations across the Capital since 1995. Director David Farnsworth finished by underlining the trust’s belief that Londoners need financial aid to support their good deeds.
He explained: “City Bridge Trust is London’s biggest independent grant giver, making grants of £20m a year to tackle disadvantage across the Capital. “We are committed to supporting Londoners to make our city a fairer place to live and work.”
