On Thursday evening I was at Fox Hollies Forum for the AGM of the Fox Hollies Community Association (FHCA). The FHCA supports a range of vital community activities, from mother and toddler groups to activities for older people, from its base at Fox Hollies Forum, Greenwood Avenue. Its been a challenging couple of years as the Association has taken over the management of the Forum from the Council, but this has been successfully managed and the Forum looks in great shape. You can find out more about the facilities at the Forum via this link to their facebook page.

I’m a committee member and use my experience of charity fundraising to help generate funds for the work of the FHCA. Currently we are working on a major project to renovate the Environmental Centre, which has become tired and worn over a generation of hard use. During the summer I worked with Avice Taylor (Vice Chair), Dave Swingle (Treasurer) and Matt Redmond (Chair) to write a bid to the Veolia Environmental Trust for the money. Its fair to say that the bidding process was far from simple, but the work paid off when we learnt recently that we had been awarded £18,286; not the full amount we asked for, but most of it. Apparently they were heavily oversubscribed and decided to part fund applications to spread their money further – we lost around £6k for renewing the footpaths and we will be doing our best to raise that money from other funders. The plan is for the work funded by the Veolia Environmental Trust to be carried out next Spring.