Community Foundation for Wakefield

The Community Foundation for Wakefield is an independent grant-making charity rooted in inspiring local philanthropy to transform lives by tackling deprivation and supporting overlooked vulnerable individuals and families. Its core values of inclusion, dignity, and responsiveness drive a person-centred, non-judgemental philosophy, providing flexible immediate relief to those falling through cracks in statutory and charitable services. Funding decisions prioritize equity, grassroots empowerment, and community-led solutions, believing sustainable change arises from addressing acute needs with stability, upskilling, education, and foundational support enabling better prospects.

It funds prevention and relief of poverty through emergency food provision, crisis aid, and food insecurity programs for families in hardship; education and training including skills development and employability support for young people facing barriers; health and mental wellbeing services addressing isolation, anxiety, and trauma; disability support encompassing respite care, inclusive activities, and equipment for children, adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, complex health needs, and autism spectrum disorder; housing interventions combating bed poverty and homelessness prevention via essential furniture and goods; community development fostering cohesion, peer support groups, and befriending for ethnic minorities, refugees, migrant families, and isolated elderly; employment initiatives like job training and mentoring for care leavers and disadvantaged youth; human rights and equality projects promoting diversity; arts, culture, recreation, sports, and outdoor activities for children and young people; environmental action building resilience; and carer support preventing family breakdown. Supported interventions include therapeutic activities, advocacy, advice, after-school clubs, day services, drop-in centres, and holistic, preventative, trauma-informed approaches maximizing immediate impact through direct goods, small grants to grassroots groups, and collaborative service delivery.

Exclusions encompass duplicating well-funded services, national organizations without local ties, and activities lacking community impact or targeting non-local beneficiaries. Distinctives include hyper-localized, needs-driven focus on Wakefield's urban and rural deprived communities—prioritizing acute hardship families, overlooked minorities, bed poverty victims, isolated elderly, disabled children and adults, refugee families, and youth in crisis—via judgement-free direct provision like bed donations through social enterprise, blending grant-making with advocacy, fostering sustainability through local networks, endowment growth, and person-led empowerment over top-down aid.