The Openwork Foundation is both a fundraising and grant-giving fund. Our staff and Advisers fundraise in their own time and put forward projects and charities they’d like to support.
Fundraising can include a variety of events. Advisers and staff can support the Foundation by regularly donating money at key events. Teams of staff and Advisers also volunteer in their own time to complete one-off projects for local charities.
Since 1981, the Foundation has supported over 1,500 projects in the UK and abroad and has given £20.8 million to the community. During this time the Foundation has provided vital support for many people and causes.
We have:
The Openwork Foundation has also worked in partnership with Action For Kids, supporting their mobility advocacy programme. Helping families access the essential specialist or adapted mobility equipment from their local services.
The Openwork Foundation is proud to support vulnerable children and adults in the UK and overseas. Its mission will always be to make a difference. From new born babies to those in later life; every vulnerable person deserves our support. That’s why they provide grants to charities and we volunteer to help those in our communities, where and when they need us most.
The Openwork Foundation is a registered charity (charity number 1184592) and is managed by a Board of Trustees which is supported by a Fundraising Committee and Grant Committee made up from members of The Openwork Partnership.
The Openwork Foundation works with established charities to support long-term initiatives. The charity partner until December 2020 was Action for Kids.
Children with disabilities are one of the most marginalised and excluded groups in society. Facing daily challenges, they are also at a higher risk of physical abuse, including bullying.
These are just a few reasons why the Openwork Foundation chose Action For Kids as its National Charity Partner.
Action For Kids helps and provides disabled children and young people with specialist or adapted mobility equipment that is not available from the NHS. The children are empowered to live the life they chose, more independently.
Laya is 5 and has a condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy which causes progressive muscle weakness and she cannot stand, walk, crawl or sit unaided. Because of her lack of control of her neck and her general weakness she is mainly fed by a tube in her stomach to avoid choking. She is a bubbly, bright little girl though who loves school and joining in as many activities as is possible, even though she is mainly on the sidelines watching.
When we met her family Laya was using a borrowed wizzybug paediatric powered wheelchair as it was the only way she could get around independently. However it was far too small for her as it was built for a 2-year old and it had no back or neck postural support. Her physiotherapist recommended the perfect wheelchair for her condition – the Dragon Mobility Snap Dragon Wheelchair but at almost £25,000 it was completely beyond her family’s means.
In his own words –
“I remember everything about the accident. I was in a friend’s garden and went into the swimming pool meaning to scuba along the bottom, not full dive. I hit the bottom, snapped my neck in two places and paralysed me instantly so I didn’t feel my neck break.
It took me a while to come to terms with having a major accident but once I got over that stage, there was a new me. I had to just get on with it, I had to. The other option is sitting and dwelling in your sadness.
It’s just finding ways to do things, you’ve just got to get around it and find new ways of doing things. My injuries are incomplete which means I’ve got a chance that things could change. Complete means you can’t get anything back.”
Business Works
South Shields
Tyne & Wear
NE33 1RF
Tel: 0191 4274598
Email: info@reliancefinancial.co.uk
