Warrington property company launches national community fund

News
14/05/2020

Warrington primary care property specialist Assura plc is to launch a community fund to support local health projects across the UK – distributing more than £3m over the next five years.


The Assura Community Fund has been created to support health-improving work by charities and local groups in the communities around Assura’s GP surgery, primary care and treatment centre buildings around the country.


The fund, which was already planned for launch in May before the COVID19 pandemic, has been boosted by a £2.5m donation by the company in April. It will build on the work of Assura’s existing Healthy Communities grant scheme, which has funded projects nominated by the GP practices in its buildings ranging from social prescribing walking groups, gardening schemes and coffee and chat sessions to support for a new Men’s Shed and a community bakery run by young people with learning disabilities and autism.


Assura’s CEO, Jonathan Murphy, said:

“The Assura Community Fund has been a long time in the planning for launch this year but with the impact of coronavirus, we know there’s now an even more important role for it to play. The roots of the fund’s work are very firmly in the relationship between local charity projects, primary care and social prescribing, and those areas will be vital in helping our communities recover in the months and years to come.”


The fund will be managed for Assura by Cheshire Community Foundation, and will begin inviting applications for a share of £750,000 in initial grants from June this year. Funding will be targeted at projects serving people living within a 15-mile radius of each of Assura’s buildings around the country, with a specific tranche of funding earmarked for strategic grant giving in Assura’s home town of Warrington. With further fundraising by the company over the next five years, Assura plans for the fund to have reached £5m by March 2026.


Warrington South MP, Andy Carter, said:

“The Assura Community Fund will add real value to people’s lives by supporting health-improving projects linked with primary care in Warrington and beyond. This funding, combined with the record investment we are making in our NHS, will go some way to combatting the long-term health challenges our communities face.”


Cheshire Community Foundation CEO Zoe Sheppard said:

“We are delighted to be working with Assura to manage the Assura Community Fund. This is an incredibly generous commitment from Assura, at a time when it has never been more important to invest in our local communities."