£20,000 Asda Foundation grant for charity tackling loneliness among older people

Community champion Anna Jellye from our Perth store surprised the team at Elder Voice with an Asda Foundation Spaces and Places grant for £20,000.

Elder Voice is a local charity, which addresses loneliness, isolation and malnutrition in older people living in and around Perth and Kinross.

The £20,000 will allow the group to build a new toilet suite suitable for those with disabilities it will also go towards providing activities such as arts and crafts, dance classes and speech classes.

Anna said:“I was delighted when I received the news about the funding! The Elder Voice volunteers work so hard throughout Perth and Kinross to help the elderly - they genuinely deserve this.

“The £20,000 will make such a massive difference, especially now as the organisation is growing. Elder Voice cares about providing the older generation with a great quality of life – I can’t wait to see the new facilities and what they do with the funding, and I have no doubt it will be fantastic.’’

Maggie Urquhart, interim chair at Elder Voice said: “Thank you so very much to the Asda Foundation for this grant. This money will be such a boost and massively improve our facilities. The older people within our community worked hard for us and we get a great sense of pride providing for them.

“We want to emphasise the importance of equality for the older generation, and we know they come up against a lot of challenges such as mental health, dietary issues, and transport as a lot of them are now unfortunately unable to drive. Over the last few years, we have grown our client base and it continues to grow rapidly, this grant from the Asda Foundation is unbelievable, it will allow us to bring our ideas to life as well as tackle the issues we speak about daily – thank you Asda.’’

The grant is part of the Asda Foundation’s investment of £750k in 60 local community groups and charities across the UK, with the aim of transforming community spaces and places, after customers said the cost-of-living crisis has impacted their social and community interaction.

Over 60 ‘Spaces and Places’ grants ranging from £5,000 to £25,000, have been awarded across the UK by the Asda Foundation, and Elder Voice was one of the successful applications to receive funding.