KCCF attends Royal Garden Party

KCCF was delighted to attend the Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace last week as guests of His Majesty King Charles III. We were represented by a team member and a Trustee, Colleen Harris, who hosted five of our grantees at the event. Attendees were excited to see Their Majesties and other senior Royal Family members, as well as enjoying the tea tent, military bands and beautiful gardens. Learn more about the grantees who attended below.

Omega, ending isolation, ending loneliness

We have supported Omega since 2014, and they are currently one of our strategic partners. Based in the West Midlands, Omega is dedicated to reducing social isolation and loneliness and was represented at the Royal Garden Party by CEO, Pete Brophy, and Chair of Trustees Linton Waters.

Although Omega was founded as a specialist end-of-life care charity in 2007, the charity has gradually refocused over the years to reflect the needs of their clients. They discovered that while not all their clients were dealing with end-of-life issues, the one thing that united them was a daily struggle with feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Services offered by the charity include ‘Chatterbox’ telephone befriending and ‘Letterbox’ pen pal befriending. Omega generally support elderly vulnerable  clients with multiple challenges. One client said ‘It picks up my mood on a bad day… 10/10‘ whilst another said ‘It feels like I have a friend in my home. We’d be here all day if I told you everything that was good about Chatterbox‘.

A new initiative, ‘Umbrella’, will connect and unite different support groups around the UK. Omega will support the network of groups by publicising their events under one banner, sharing information, and signposting members to useful services.

Community Development Association for Minority Communities

Founded in 2005, the Association’s mission is to improve the life chances of disadvantaged people from minority communities by helping to rebuild lives, encourage good citizenship and empowering people to make positive contributions to their communities, improving social cohesion in Haringey, North London.

We were delighted that Hussein Mursal, Organisational Development Advisor and Hussein Ali Ahmed, Chair of Trustees were able to join us at the Garden Party.

The Association provides a wide range of services, including early intervention educational programmes, vocational training and workshops as well as practical support and guidance, befriending services, social clubs and sports.

We have supported the Association through our small grants programme since 2019, and our current funding is helping the Association to empower people by improving access to healthcare and raising awareness of health inequalities. In 2023, KCCF funding supported 68 people.

The Upper Room

The Upper Room provides individuals with practical and emotional support equipping them with the skills and tools they need to gain resilience and help them make more positive life choices. At the Garden Party, The Upper Room was represented by Simon Tuke, Chair of Trustees and Elaine Reeve, the Project Manager of the UR4 Driving programme, which is supported by KCCF.

This London-based charity offers a range of programmes including citizens advice, fresh, hot food 5 days a week to people experiencing homelessness and anyone who is hungry (UR4Meals), multilingual employment support to people who face multiple barriers to finding work (UR4Jobs) and UR4Driving, which teaches approximately 100 ex-offenders and ‘at-risk’ young people to drive in exchange for 80 hours of voluntary service, helping to improve prospects and employability.

The Harmony Project

The Harmony Project is on a mission to inspire and support schools in the UK and around the world to adopt a Harmony approach to education – one informed by Nature’s principles. This approach takes inspiration from His Majesty The King’s vision, as set out in his book Harmony: A new way of looking at our world. The charity provides support and resources to more than 130 schools who are adopting a Harmony curriculum.

KCCF has supported The Harmony Project for many years through our large and small grant programmes. We were thrilled to be joined by their Director, Richard Dunne.

Peterborough Asylum and Refugee Community Association (PARCA)

PARCA supports refugees, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable migrants living in disadvantaged and income-deprived communities in greater Peterborough. This mission involves providing essential services, language training, support, and resources to help these individuals overcome barriers, integrate into the community, and improve their quality of life.

We were pleased to be joined by founder-director Moez Nathu, who established PARCA in 2002 and delighted to support the charity’s FoodLink Hub through our Coronation Food Project grants programme.

The ‘FoodLink Hub’ will establish an innovative online platform connecting local businesses with surplus food to food banks, homeless shelters, and charities.