In early 2022, the Henry Smith Charity announced their new COVID-19 Long-term Support Grant Programme to support current grant holders to meet additional needs resulting from the impact of the pandemic.

Following a successful application in February 2020, CHEXS, an award-winning youth and family support charity in Hertfordshire, asked us to support them in developing a proposal for this new funding programme.

CHEXS work with disadvantaged and underperforming school-aged children, and their families, to help raise their self-esteem, build new skills and improve wellbeing. Since the pandemic they had experienced a significant increase in referrals and complexity of needs.

A grant of £108,206 will enable CHEXS to increase their capacity to support 135 disadvantaged families over three years. They will to improve family relationships and address sources of conflict that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to our success with CHEXS, we were successful in securing grants for four other clients through Henry Smith's COVID-19 Long-term Support Grant Programme, raising a total of £554,731.