The Mayor's Charitable Trust

As is customary, the Mayor has chosen two local organisations to champion as her special causes during her time in office. The first is Kingston Charitable Foundation which supports local charities and volunteer organisations that address inequalities across Kingston. The second is Voices of Hope, an organisation dedicated to rebuilding hope in those who have faced severe adversity, focusing on improving physical and mental health through community-based projects.

Voices of Hope

Voices of Hope runs community based projects with the aim of rebuilding hope and transforming lives.

They seek to engage people who are experiencing disadvantage and/or social isolation; families experiencing food insecurity, women who have experienced abuse/domestic violence, people struggling with complex physical and/or mental health issues, the elderly and at-risk youth.

Voices of Hope began in 2019 with several community choirs across South West London, bringing those who were marginalised or isolated together around a love and joy of singing. They received full charity status in January 2020, and their reach was already growing, when the pandemic forced their choirs to close.

Looking at the compounding needs in the Kingston community, they pivoted to pioneer food projects and distribute food parcels with over 30,000 parcels delivered during Covid; food provision became their second strand. They founded BRITE Box which sends out meal kits with all the ingredients and an illustrated recipe guide to cook a healthy, family meal on a budget. BRITE Box aims to bring families together around food, building skills and confidence to enjoy cooking, and in doing so address the growing issue of food insecurity. The project is now across 6 London Boroughs, reaching over 600 families.

Voices of Hope have restarted all of their 13 choirs in community centres and care homes, and developed new creative arts projects such as the Active Breathing Course which helps people recover from Long Covid, supporting those with long-term respiratory conditions and/or anxiety.

In leading a partnership initiative, Kingston Women's Hub, they now also provide wrap-around support for women facing multiple disadvantages and/or abuse. They are proud to champion the restoration and empowerment of women through community projects, peer mentoring, strategy forums and employment support/opportunities.

Voices of Hope support over 700 Kingston residents on a weekly basis through their projects.

Kingston Charitable Foundation

Kingston Charitable Foundation launched in January 2021, following 8 successful years as local community fundraising project, Love Kingston.

The past 26 months have been an incredible time of growth for us, from being a very small

charitable foundation of just 2 part time members of staff to only very recently achieving a City Bridge Trust grant to fund 3 new part time team members who started in May 2023.

Over the past year, we have awarded 47 grants to local groups and charitable organisations that are working at the heart of our shared community, delivering projects, and supporting local individuals and families facing hardship in our Borough.  Our grants have directly supported over 24,900 Kingston residents during this time.

Wonderful organisations we have supported with grants include: RBKares, Milaap Centre, Nanoom, Save the World Club, Brighter Living, Voices of Hope, Yorda’s Adventures, KAG Advocacy, New Era CIC, Kingston Young Carers, Homestart and many, many more.

Our grants have supported projects, individuals, and families. One of our grants from Wintertime,was to buy warmer bedding for child carers in our borough.

We also created a project with RBKares, for Winter Warmer bags, that each contained gloves, a hat,a hot water bottle and a beautiful handmade blanket; these blankets of crocheted squares were carefully made by wonderful volunteers. All practical items for keeping warm during these unprecedented times, but each bag was also made with love, gifts to local vulnerable people.

We’ve funded days out on boats and to the seaside for older, vulnerable people, children with disabilities, and refugees.

We have also created a bespoke restricted fund for The Willow Tree Foundation which will provide a grants programme to directly support people living with blood cancer in our shared community. This new grants programme will be launching in June 2023.

To read more about our work over the past year and our near-future plans, please see our Impact Report 2022.

We firmly believe in the sharing economy and how we can pull together to support local people.

Please contact our CEO, Hicky Kingsbury if you would like to hear more about our work; you could also connect with her on Linkedin.

Hicky said of the recent announcement from the Mayor’s Office that Kingston Charitable Foundation is to be supported by The Mayor’s Charitable Trust in 2023/24:

‘We were delighted to be invited to one of the Mayoral Charities of the Year by our wonderful new Mayor,  Diane White and Deputy Mayor Richard Thorpe. It is a real honour to have been selected, together with Voices of Hope, a charity we know so well through our shared community and indeed by awarding 3 grants to, since we launched in 2021.

This is such an incredible opportunity to fundraise for and directly support Kingston residents. The team and I are really excited about this year and are already making plans on how we can collectively make the most difference’

Join us in our Mission, to Build Stronger Communities, where everyone’s needs are met.