Riverside Foundation

Our charity Riverside Foundation exists to transform lives.

About Riverside Foundation

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Our charity Riverside Foundation exists to provide practical support to help people overcome obstacles for a better quality of life.

The Foundation supports a diverse range of projects aimed at promoting community action and cohesion, and breaking the cycle of poverty in our neighbourhoods.

The Riverside Foundation focuses on three key areas of:

  • Employment and training opportunities: Helping people to fulfil their potential by supporting their academic and professional goals through advice, training and volunteering opportunities.
  • Neighbourhood and environment: Ensuring Riverside communities remain sustainable, inclusive and safe places for people to live, work and play, and which inspire a sense of neighbourhood pride and togetherness.
  • Supporting people facing challenges: Giving those facing challenges in Riverside communities and schemes the opportunity to improve their health, wellbeing and inclusion, and to maintain a safe and stable home.

Key Facts – April 2019 to March 2020

  • During our last financial year we supported 3356 people or households with our projects that are fund by the Riverside Foundation.
  • Employment & training advice and guidance – We’ve helped 385 customers develop their employment skills and 238 customers have moved into employment. We’ve also helped 147 into formal training or volunteering and 11 into apprenticeships.
  • Through our Ladders of Aspiration funding we’ve helped 138 customers to gain qualifications.
  • Through our Money Advice service we’ve had 1346 referrals and helped increase income for customers by £1,162,447.
  • Our Helping hand hardship fund has assisted customer to buy new clothes or pay for travel cost to job interviews. While a further 357 customers benefited by getting essential furniture like a bed, fridge or sofa. We’ve also helped 106 customers to get emergency energy top ups.
  • Affordable warmth advisors have helped 500 customers to save over £197,449 on energy bills.*
  • We’ve helped support 128 customers facing challenges to live independently and receive support for their needs through our Intensive Intervention scheme.

** Our Money Advice, Employment and Training and Affordable Warmth Services are part funded by The Riverside Housing Group

What we do

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Our current projects include:

Employment and Training
We know that employment can be a route out of poverty, and that having something to do improves wellbeing. The service supports customers who have lost their job, or are looking to increase their hours or job security. It also works with people who have never had a job.

Officers work one-to-one with people, helping them to identify what kind of job they would like, and to develop the confidence, skills and resources to help them gain employment. This could include developing their CV, helping with job searches, interview skills etc. The service also provides Job Clubs for local communities, with IT equipment to assist in job-searches, and builds strong links with local employers.

In April 2019, the service expanded to support people into volunteering and training, in addition to employment. This has enabled it to support people who may be further from employment, and has meant that we can expand the service to work with customers within our Care and Support services.

Visit our Employment and Training Advice pages to find out more.

Ladders of Aspiration
Developed in October 2018 as part of Riverside’s 90th Birthday celebrations. It is a grants programme for Riverside customers (or their children) to enable them to pursue their academic or professional goals.

The programme has supported people through a diverse range of professional courses, including Phlebotomy, HGV, Translation, and Project Management.

Our interim findings suggest that it has made a valuable contribution to helping people gain employment, which is more sustainable and aligned to their ambitions.

Money Advice
With the continuing reductions in Welfare Benefits, migration of claimants onto Universal Credit, increasing use of ‘sanctions’ to penalise claimants, and increasingly complex process to claim all and particularly disability benefits, it has never been more vital to provide support in claiming welfare benefits.

The service supports customers on their benefit entitlement, help them to apply for funding, attend assessments and review any benefits if required. Visit our Money Advice pages to find out more.

Affordable Warmth
The affordable warmth service helps our customers facing fuel poverty, helping them to save money by switching supplies to a cheaper tariff or advising them to make changes within the home that would save them money and help supports the reduction of carbon emissions.

Read more about saving money on your energy bills here.

Helping Hands
The Helping Hands fund enables us to support households facing challenges with one off assistance: for example: replacing a cooker; providing fuel top up vouchers; interview clothing and other items.

With many of Riverside customers moving in and out of insecure and low paid work, including zero hours contracts, and with the reducing support available from local authorities and charities, this fund can help to prevent and alleviate the immediate crisis, enabling officers to work with the customer to help them improve their circumstances.

Intensive Intervention:
The service provides intensive support to customers facing challenges, who are at risk of losing their homes.

Support is personalised to the individual needs of the household, and involves developing a holistic understanding of the person’s needs, then developing an action plan with them. Officers also have local knowledge of external specialist support, and can make referrals and accompany people to these support agencies, for example, specialist mental health services, and Welfare Benefits advice. The service helps people who may be at risk of becoming homeless, by addressing social and financial challenges that could lead to rent arrears and anti-social behaviour.

The service builds trust with people who otherwise would be hard to engage, providing an invaluable link to Riverside teams, including housing management, rent collection, and gas safety.

Small Bids
The Foundation also supports small community bids, which fit with our aims, and provide an opportunity to deliver further benefits to individuals and communities.

Related Riverside Foundation documents

  • Riverside Foundation Financial Statements 2022 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes August 20 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes April 20 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes February 20 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Financial Statements 2020 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes October 19 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes July 19 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes April 2019 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes February 2019 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Financial Statements 2019 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes October 2018 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes July 2018 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes April 2018 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes January 2018 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes October 17 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes July 17 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Minutes April 17 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Financial Statements 2017/18 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Financial Statements 2016/17 Download
  • Riverside Foundation Financial Statements 2015/16 Download

Who we are

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Gate buddies

The current Trustees of the Riverside Foundation are:

  • Cameron Dougherty – Trustee
  • Glenn Garrett – Trustee
  • Catherine Lee – Trustee
  • Sandy Murray – Trustee
  • Jehan Weerasinghe – Trustee

Riverside Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales (513727)