Forte Charitable Trust

Forte Charitable Foundation pursues a mission to combat extreme urban deprivation and rural poverty across the UK by strengthening disadvantaged communities and creating opportunities for vulnerable individuals and families facing social and economic hardship. Guided by values of focus, evidence-based decision-making, supportiveness, political independence, and relentless effectiveness improvement, it empowers small and medium-sized local organizations through flexible, multi-year grants that prioritize grantee autonomy, root-cause interventions, and lasting community resilience via direct service delivery and preventive measures.

It funds initiatives tackling mental health challenges through counselling and peer support groups, homelessness prevention via outreach and housing stabilization for homeless people and rough sleepers, family support including programs for marginalised young fathers, single parents, and families in crisis experiencing food insecurity or poverty, youth disadvantage with after-school clubs, mentoring, and employability training for young people aged 16-25 facing barriers like unemployment or exclusion, rural isolation through community hubs and befriending for isolated individuals and elderly residents, domestic abuse recovery offering safe spaces, advocacy, and trauma-informed counselling for survivors, addiction recovery via therapeutic activities and peer support for people with substance dependencies, and disability services including day services and respite care for adults and children with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, or complex health needs. Emphasizing community-led, person-centred, early intervention approaches, it backs evidence-based models like drop-in centres, holistic family interventions, and preventive outreach to foster independence, social cohesion, and reduced deprivation in underfunded areas.

Exclusions encompass capital projects, campaigning, and environmental-only aims, alongside generalist or non-local efforts lacking proven impact. Distinctive for championing smaller grassroots charities with established track records and deep local engagement in the UK's most deprived urban and rural communities, it prioritizes beneficiaries like care leavers, ethnic minority families, disabled people in poverty, and isolated rural dwellers, demanding evidence-based practice, measurable outcomes, and commitment to empowering those hit hardest by systemic deprivation.