Manchester-based Seashell Trust has secured a £500 grant from Equilibrium Financial Planning, as the Cheshire-based financial planning company embarks on the next round of its Community Support Scheme donations.
Seashell Trust provides education and year-round residential care for children and young people aged 2-25, who have profound learning disabilities and sensory impairments. All its children and young people have a degree of brain damage, resulting in profound, multiple and complex disabilities. This includes combinations of visual and hearing impairments, cerebral palsy, down’s syndrome, autism, drug-resistant epilepsy, diabetes and digestive disorders requiring tube feeding.
The charity aims to provide a creative, happy and secure environment for children and young people with the expertise of its specialist teachers, care staff, onsite therapy team, assistive technologists, swimming teachers and sports coaches.
The donation from Equilibrium will go towards equipment to ensure that children can shower safely following their swimming lessons with the Seashell Trust.
Wendy Bray, fundraising manager at the Seashell Trust, said: “Seashell Trust is so grateful to Equilibrium for their incredibly generous donation of £500. The money raised will be used for hydro equipment that will enable more children and young people with very complex disabilities to access our swimming pool. Our aspirations for young people include ensuring they have access to the same opportunities as others, including sport and recreational learning. Seashell Trust has pioneered inclusive sport for those with and without disabilities and exercise also make an important contribution to our students’ mental health and well-being. Thank you so much from everyone at Seashell.”
Many of Seashell Trust’s students have very limited mobility and require specialist facilities with shower trollies and shower chairs so that they can be showered with safety and dignity. The grant will be used to invest in a new shower trolley to ensure that these children and young people can be showered safely.
The move comes as Equilibrium recently donated over £30,000 to local charities, foodbanks and voluntary organisations, to ensure they were supported through the COVID-19 crisis.
The company’s founder, Colin Lawson, spoke about the wealth management firm’s unique approach at the time, saying: “In the wake of COVID-19, the plight of charities has really come to our attention. Food banks are struggling with having less volunteers and no produce as people panic buy. The general public is also making fewer donations than normal, as people are having to face pay cuts or redundancies and have less cash to spare. […]
“Everything that we do at Equilibrium is centred around making people’s lives better, and so as the world has been thrown into turmoil, we feel there’s no better time to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into that.”
Equilibrium’s Community Support Scheme was set up in 2015 to award grants ranging from £100 to £500 to community organisations and charities in Cheshire East, Greater Manchester and Chester and District.
With this latest handful of grants, the wealth management company has awarded over £24,000 in funds to community groups. The scheme forms a part of the company’s wider charitable strategy, anchored by The Equilibrium Foundation – which has a current donation goal of £1m.
Grant applications from the Greater Manchester area can be submitted at https://www.eqllp.co.uk/the-foundation/greater-manchester-community-support-scheme/
For more information about Equilibrium’s charity initiatives or the specialist wealth management service it offers, visit: www.equilibrium.co.uk or follow @EquilibriumFP on Twitter.
Equilibrium Financial Planning bolsters COVID-19 charitable donations with grant to Seashell Trust
