The National Express Foundation is urging organisations across the West Midlands and Kent to take advantage of an additional £100,000 of funding to support young people, before it is too late.

National Express doubled the amount of funding it provided to the Foundation in 2018. In April the charity awarded nearly £230,000 to support young people and last month the charity launched an additional funding round for the first time.

Applications for the additional £100,000 of funding must be received by Friday 24 August 2018.

Since its launch in 2012, the Foundation has awarded hundreds of thousands of pounds which has helped over 16,000 young people enjoy positive and developmental activities within their local communities and to continue with their education.

With the application deadline approaching the Foundation is urging local community groups to bid for grants of £2,500, £5,000 or for larger amounts of £10,000 or £20,000 to support sustainable projects that provide positive, developmental and engaging activities for young people.

Local colleges and universities can also apply for grants of £10,000 per year towards innovative bursary schemes that help students from disadvantaged backgrounds continue in further or higher education.

To be eligible, groups or educational institutions must be based within the West Midlands, or within Kent’s ME1-ME12, ME14, DA3, DA11, DA12 or DA13 postal codes. Full guidelines on how to apply and application forms can be found at www.nationalexpressgroup.com/foundation.

Aston University in Birmingham is using a bursary grant of £10,000 to support 20 students with their living expenses whilst undertaking unpaid placements. The support is focused on students undertaking placements in healthcare settings and they will each receive £500, paid in two equal instalments.

Dominic Riordan, from Student & Academic Services at Aston University, said:

“Aston University is delighted to be working with the National Express Foundation again this year. The bursary award is being used to support a number of students from low income families who are undertaking year-long unpaid placements as part of their studies within the School of Life and Health Sciences.

“The individual awards given to these students, studying healthcare-related courses such as Psychology, Audiology and Biomedical Sciences, is supporting their living costs while living and working away from Birmingham.”

Essex Avenue Community Tenants and Residents Association, based in West Bromwich, has secured five years of funding to support the group’s activities, starting with £5,000 in 2018.

The group is using Foundation funding to support a calendar of activities including career support services, community cohesion events, crime prevention strategies and social engagement evenings. The overall aim is to encourage 60 local young people to develop their skills and to become good citizens that are engaged with and are a productive part of the local community.

Edna Dunn, of Essex Avenue Community Tenants and Residents Association, said:

“We would like to extend our overwhelming gratitude to the National Express Foundation for supporting the important work of this association and for believing in us. The funding support means that we now have the opportunity to support our young people to become better citizens, have better career aspirations and to deter them from antisocial behaviours through our projects.”

Tara Martins Community Project in Chatham, Kent, is using £10,000 grant to support the group’s one-year work experience and work placement programme which will engage 100 young unemployed people aged between 18 and 24, providing them with valuable skills and experience for future employment.

Tara Sobowale from Tara Martins Community Project said:

“We are extremely grateful to the National Express Foundation for supporting our 2018 work experience programme. It is designed to enable the increasing number of young unemployed people get into work and training and follows on from a previous youth engagement programme which was also made possible by a grant from the National Express Foundation.”

Anthony Vigor, Chairman of the National Express Foundation, said:

“We are extremely proud that over the last six years, the National Express Foundation grants have helped over 16,000 young people to enjoy positive, developmental and engaging activities and helped them to gain qualifications and learn new skills.

“We want to support even more young people this year. We’ve therefore launched an additional funding round, to run alongside the projects we’re already supporting from our first programme earlier this year.

“External funding support is extremely limited - especially so in recent years - which is why I would urge all local educational institutions and community groups to make the most of this excellent opportunity and submit an application for Foundation funding.”