Cumbria Community Foundation has been shortlisted for a prestigious third sector award.
The organisation has been nominated in the Grantmaking & Funding category of the Charity Awards for its Transforming West Cumbria programme, co-created with and funded by Sellafield Ltd, which has generated £19.9m in social value since its launch in 2020.
The Charity Awards is the sector’s most highly regarded excellence recognition scheme and is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Transforming West Cumbria is a groundbreaking £6.5m grant making programme, developed to address the region’s toughest social challenges by working together with local partners.
Funded through the Sellafield Ltd social impact, multiplied (SiX) programme, it worked across seven programme areas, including family wellbeing, mental health support, entrepreneurship, and community development.
A recent independent evaluation revealed that Transforming West Cumbria has so far generated £19.9 million in social value – delivering £5.34 for every £1 invested across areas such as jobs created, savings from children not having to go into care, and improvements to mental health and wellbeing.
Dr Jenny Benson, director of programmes and partnerships for Cumbria Community Foundation, said: “Thanks to Sellafield Ltd’s significant long-term investment, we have been able to co-create and deliver the Transforming West Cumbria programme with a range of voluntary, community and social enterprise partners, to achieve great impact.
“Our collaborative approach has ensured that Transforming West Cumbria has remained responsive to the community’s needs, to bring about real and lasting change.”
Eirini Etoimou, head of corporate sustainability & supply chain development at Sellafield Ltd, said: “We know that Transforming West Cumbria has had wide-ranging, lasting impact on local communities since it was launched in 2020, as confirmed by the independent mid-programme evaluation.
“The programme has directly supported hundreds of local organisations and thousands of individuals and families, achieving significant outcomes in mental health support, financial wellbeing, early years development and many, many more areas.
“It is wonderful to see this work recognised by the Charity Awards and we wish Cumbria Community Foundation and the Transforming West Cumbria team the best of luck for the awards ceremony.”
The 10 category winners, plus the recipients of the Overall Award for Excellence and the Daniel Phelan Award for Outstanding Achievement, will be announced at a black-tie dinner on Thursday July 3 in London.
- St John’s Hospice North Lancashire and South Lakes, based in Lancaster, has also been shortlisted in the awards in the Education and Training category.
