THE DISPOSSESSED FUND: £1 million more to change Londoners' lives

 
'Delighted': David Cameron
17 July 2012

The Evening Standard’s Dispossessed Fund is making another £1 million gift to London.

The money will tackle poverty in almost every borough by boosting the work of 66 grassroots groups who help the city’s poorest people.

It is the second time this year the fund has awarded £1 million and it has been made possible by Sport Relief. David Cameron, who has followed the fund from its launch and who last year met people whose lives had been turned around by it, said: “I am delighted that another £1 million is being distributed to great charities that will transform the lives of more people.”

It comes amid soaring youth unemployment and cutbacks in the charitable sector. The total paid has reached £4 million and confirms the Standard as a champion of social change in London unparalleled in the modern history of British newspapers.

Boris Johnson said: “The Standard has delivered another powerful blow against poverty and deprivation in London. Everyone behind this extraordinary campaign should feel justifiably proud of their efforts.”

The groups, small charities punching well above their weight, were selected from 333 grant applications after a two-month assessment process. Applications were shortlisted on their ability to meet the fund priorities, the strength of the proposal and the capacity of the organisation to deliver the project.

The panel that made the final decision included executives representing the Standard, the Community Foundation Network and The London Community Foundation (our fund administrators), and Comic Relief, who provided the £1 million injection to the Dispossessed Fund through Sport Relief.

The charities, which will receive grants ranging from £5,000 to £20,000, include innovative groups that help teenage girls resist gangs, provide legal services for the homeless, support street-based sex workers to break cycles of abuse, offer Friday night football to keep young men off the streets, and give respite breaks for disabled Londoners and their carers.

Since it was launched in July 2010, the award-winning Dispossessed Fund has raised £8.43 million, an average of more than £1 for every Londoner.

So far we have helped 634 organisations and 25,000 people. Kevin Cahill, chief executive of Comic Relief, said: “The work of the fund has been truly brilliant.”

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