New development and personal grants are now available to young people in Bath thanks to a charity that supports talented and disadvantaged youngsters, helping them to flourish in education.
The Quadstar Foundation’s 2024 charitable grant programme helps young people by providing practical mentoring, advice and funding. The charity has been helping disadvantaged young people to develop life skills and progress in education since its launch in 2017.
Charity founder, Nick Butcher (pictured above with Michelle Butcher and Coby Ali who was supported with a grant from The Quadstar Foundation), said, “When we first launched The Quadstar Foundation, we built a school in Cambodia, one in Nepal and six small schools in Myanmar, but over the last few years we have focussed more on supporting local people who want to pursue sixth form scholarships or go to university for example. To date we have provided 13 scholarships for students at sixth form boarding school or university.
The Quadstar Foundation is introducing two new grants. The first is a one-off Personal Development Grant which is capped at £1,500 and will help pay for short-term educational courses, internships, training, and personal development. In exceptional cases this can be extended towards a full-time degree course, which will be capped at £3,000 per annum.
The second is a Personal Support Grant which is also capped at £1,500. This will help pay towards interviews, clothes, travel for a specific event, materials, sport, art, or music equipment in order to progress educationally. It also includes grants for young disabled students, who may need specific equipment to help support their educational journey.
Nick added, “Being disadvantaged – be it due to health, home life or money – should not be an obstruction to accessing the opportunities that other well supported, young people can. We help by providing grants to cover those extras that will make all the difference to people aged between 15 and 25 who live in Bath who are facing financial difficulty in pursuing their educational goals. These grants will help them to move forward with their personal and educational development.
“However, we only have a limited number of grants available each year, so anyone interested should apply now and they must be able to show determination, commitment and talent in the face of adversity. Awards are more likely to be made where the outcome will be transformational to the applicant and where they have a defined plan.”
The Quadstar Foundation is also offering a new Charity Support Grant, of up to £5,000 to smaller, young or start-up charities that work specifically in Bath or Bristol that share a similar ethos to the Foundation. Nick explained, “Any charity with an educational focus that is already supporting young disadvantaged people can benefit from our new grant, including those that provide mental health support, sports, arts, musical or theatre services.
“In addition, charities helping people with disabilities or those impacted by drugs and knife crime for example, as well as those supporting grass route opportunities in the local community, can also apply for our grant.”
The deadline for applications is the end of August 2024. For more details about these new grants from The Quadstar Foundation, visit www.quadstar.org or email email hidden; JavaScript is required