Charities have received more than £5,000 in grants from the Watford Observer’s parent company,.
Watford Workshop, Playskill, and Herts Inclusive Theatre have been successful in their bids from the Gannett Foundation UK, which supports charitable community projects every year.
Charities across the country were invited to submit applications explaining why they should be a recipient of some of this funding.
For 55 years, Watford Workshop has provided adults with disabilities the opportunity to work when they have been unable to gain mainstream employment.
The charity received £2,560 which will go towards buying ergonomic chairs and footrests which will help make adults who visit the charity more comfortable and improve their posture.
After finding out the bid was successful, partnerships manager Gill Nightingale said: "As a small charity, the cost to deliver this solution was beyond our reach and we are absolutely delighted and immensely grateful to the Garnett Foundation in granting this funding to enable us to now provide this ergonomic environment to our service users. We cannot thank you enough."
Playskill will receive £2,280 for therapy equipment. The charity runs parent and child term-time groups for pre-school children with special physical needs.
Fundraiser Steph Mitchell said: "We are delighted to hear that the Gannett Foundation will be generously supporting Playskill’s work with a donation of £2,280. This donation will buy therapy equipment for use in our specialist playgroups for disabled children.
"It will help Watford children with complex disabilities develop vital mobility and communication skills at an early age that could make a lifetime’s difference and enable them to reach their full potential."
Playskill
Meanwhile, Herts Inclusive Theatre, a charity which works with disabled and non-disabled children, young people and adults, will be able to spend £380 on a new sound system.
Fundraising manager Liz Pilny said: "We are so delighted to receive the grant from The Gannett Foundation. To have an updated PA system means so much to us. It will be used throughout the term and for many terms to come on a lot of our different projects. It may sound like a small thing but giving everyone the chance to use it is definitely helping them with confidence. "Having our own equipment like this would save hiring in, saving an expense that can go towards the running of the workshops."
Herts Inclusive Theatre
The Gannett Foundation, the charitable arm of Gannett, is the parent company of Newsquest, which owns the Observer.
Chairman of the trustees at the foundation, Simon Westrop, said: "If your application did not succeed this time, please don’t be discouraged. Look out in your local Newsquest title, in the newspaper or on the website, for the announcement of the next annual round of Gannett Foundation UK grants sometime in the summer."
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