Salix Seed Fund

Introducing the Salix Seed Fund – a brand new initiative that empowers our colleagues to make a positive impact in the Salford community.

The Salix Seed Fund is a funding pot of £40,000 provided through our contractors that has been earmarked for ‘social value’ projects.

The initiative aims to aims to promote community engagement, build better relationships with our customers, enhance health and wellbeing, improve lives, and increase opportunities for the people of Salford, by funding social value projects that directly benefit our customers and communities.

To ensure that the Salix Seed Fund is spent on projects that truly reflect the needs of our communities, we invited all colleagues to nominate projects for consideration, as we believe our dedicated teams, with their understanding of our communities’ needs, are best positioned to identify projects that will have the most significant impact.

The projects we’ve allocated funding to include:

The Shed Creative Health

A project that supports vulnerable men with complex needs including physical and mental health issues, by providing support and access to arts, culture and heritage activities to help improve their health and wellbeing.

Salford Loaves and Fishes

A charity which supports homeless, isolated and vulnerable people across Salford. The Salix Seed Fund grant is being used to deliver a Flexible Learning Hub at the charity’s Skills For Life Centre, to help people develop digital skills and complete online training courses. This includes maths, English and IT, as well as a range of accredited course in skills such as health and safety and food hygiene to help improve people’s employment prospects.

School Sensory Garden

Children and staff at Wharton Primary School were left devastated when their sensory garden and all-weather pitch were targeted by vandals. The facilities provide vital outdoor space for children with special educational needs, but the school was left facing a hefty bill to fix the damage caused. Thanks to a helping hand from the Salix Seed Fund, we’re supporting the school to fix the damage and help enrich the children’s education.

DoSportUK

A project which provides sporting opportunities to people of all ages with disabilities. The Salford Knights inclusive basketball team is part of the DoSportUK initiative, providing a fun and inclusive environment for people with learning difficulties to play basketball, make friends and feel part of a team. The project is a lifeline for many of its members, helping to tackle the health and social inequalities that exist for people with disabilities.