Grants of up to £20,000 on offer to sight-loss charities

Charities in London that support blind and partially sighted people are being urged to bid for grants of up to £20,000.

The funding is being offered by Vision Foundation and split into two strands.

The first, called The Project Fund, is offering grants of up to £20,000 to tackle structural barriers blind and partially sighted people face. This is particularly looking at addressing “the shockingly high unemployment rates of blind and partially sighted people”, said the Foundation.

This is open to charities within the Greater London area, which support blind and partially sighted people to find and retain work. Grants will be awarded for up to two years.

The second funding stream is called the Resilience Fund and is offering unrestricted grants of up to £5,000 to sight loss organisations to help mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their finances.

“We are so excited to be able to launch one more round of funding in this financial year.” says Vision Foundation Chief Executive Olivia Curno.

She added: “We are thrilled to be able to fund both innovative and essential projects which support blind and partially sighted Londoners, and to ensure that grassroots organisations are able to recover from a very challenging year and a half.”

The deadline for applications is 13 January and decided on by 15 March.