Heathrow Community Trust

14/10/2026

We awarded a two-year grant of £10,000 to Embracing Age in April 2024 though the Communities Together Small grant programme.

The project enabled Embracing Age to make a permanent position for the Project Co-ordinator (previously temporary) to recruit, vet, train and provide ongoing support to volunteers to befriend care home residents across the borough of Richmond. The befriending volunteers provided regular companionship to older care home residents who often had little or no outside contact.

The activities included:
Expansion of their Cards of Kindness initiative, delivering 7,613 handmade cards in 2025, more than doubling the previous year. Many residents told care home staff these were the only personal messages they received.

Strengthening intergenerational connections through partnerships with schools, churches and community groups, helping older people feel remembered and valued.

• Delivering additional wellbeing initiatives including handmade gifts, Christmas hampers, clothing and toiletries projects for residents without family support, and reminiscence activities designed to spark conversation and joy.

• Deepening community engagement by involving volunteers, churches and local groups in practical acts of kindness towards care home residents.

They also saw wider impact beyond the original proposal. Care home staff reported improvements in resident wellbeing, increased social interaction and a more uplifting atmosphere due to the consistent presence of volunteers and community activities. Volunteers also reported increased purpose, empathy and stronger community connections through their involvement.

Due to the funding, they have been able to provide one to one and group befriending to 81 residents, making a real difference to reducing loneliness and social isolation.

During 2025, Embracing Age supported 2,351 care home residents across their projects, their highest reach to date. They also increased the number of care homes supported from 116 in 2024 to 176 in 2025, a 51% increase

Embracing Age are a small charity based in Richmond, working with isolated care home residents to improve their quality of life through social inclusion for 9 years. They collaborate with other local organisations and care homes and the project is shaped by residents and is tried & tested.

14/10/2026

Funded through our Communities Together programme, looks like a great time was had by all. Thanks for the mention.

14/10/2026

Thanks for mentioning us. The community walks bringing together local groups with nature sound amazing.

We recently hosted a community walk at Paradise Fields in collaboration with Mencap🚶‍➡️It joins a series of walks bringing local groups together to explore and connect with nature. Huge thanks to Heathrow Community Trust, whose generous funding and support made this event possible.

21/09/2026

We awarded a grant of £15,000 through our Environment & Sustainability programme to Trees for Cities in December 2023.

The projects was to enable tree planting and co-design with community engagement activities as part of their wider Northolt Green Ring project, delivering new urban greening, wayfinding and pedestrian & cyclist connections to contribute to air quality, biodiversity, health and active travel objectives.

Working alongside local residents and community groups, 228 trees were planted at Belvue Park, enhancing the area’s health and climate resilience and increasing community skills and confidence in planting and caring for urban trees.

The community planting day used staggered sessions, engaging local volunteers, and ran four school workshops with pupils from Belvue High School and Linden Lodge School. At Belvue Park, all four school workshops were delivered in partnership with the Sensory Trust, engaging over 50 children and young people with special educational needs.

Volunteers from the community planting event developed a deeper connection to their local green space, with 80% of surveyed volunteers reporting plans to take further action to plant, promote and protect urban trees, including coming back to Belvue Park to care for the trees planted on the day.

Local residents contributed to both the design and delivery of project, gaining hands-on experience and a stronger sense of pride in their revitalised local green space.

Overall, 228 trees were planted, 300m of land improved, 99 people feeling more involved in community and 103 volunteers delivering 165 volunteer hours.

17/09/2026

We awarded a grant of £14,500 to The Children’s Book Project in June 2025 to offer a green solution to book poverty: finding second homes for pre-loved books, lengthening their lifecycle and increasing their impact. 640,000 tons of books enter landfill annually, each producing methane as it decomposes. This project helped to ensure pre-loved children's books are reused and rehomed in book-poor communities.

The Power of Preloved Books connects environmental and social impact: encouraging families and organisations to pass on high-quality children’s books they had outgrown and giving those books meaningful second homes with children experiencing book poverty.

Alongside their school gifting programme, they have expanded opportunities for pre-loved books to be donated and reused, produced new video content promoting the power of pre-loved books and raised awareness of children’s book poverty, and grew their network of local schools and community organisations.

The original project planned to work with 10 schools, to reach approximately 3,500 children and gifting 15,000 books over 12 months. At then end of the project, the organisation had worked with 14 primary schools, reaching 5,147 children and gifting 27,829 books.

The project formed part of a landmark year for the Children’s Book Project, during which they gifted more than one million books nationally and reused or recycled 475 metric tonnes of books. At the heart of the Heathrow project was the same simple principle: keeping books in circulation for longer while enabling children to choose books they were excited to take home and keep.

The project delivered 250 volunteers contributing 1500 hours, 5,147 were children actively involved, 14 schools benefitted and 10 businesses participated.

08/09/2026

We awarded a grant to Berkshire Vision of £30,000 through our Communities Together Large programme in July 2024 to deliver a two-year project of monthly social activities for their members in Slough and Windsor & Maidenhead.

The activities included coffee mornings in community spaces such as coffee shops, decided by members. Craft sessions, singers/musicians, bingo and other entertainment in community halls, and Slough Aktiveyes which is for more adventurous members who like park walks, pub meals, history talks, visiting places of interest and . A new group was created for those who wanted to meet for coffee/food and conversation in a variety of locations, so a Food With Friends group now meets monthly and has now become a regular part of their activity programme

The clubs have been running successfully for several years and steadily growing in size. For many members, these events offer invaluable social opportunities with friends and members of their community to come together for friendship and entertainment, which has a positive impact on feelings of isolation and loneliness. A recent Impact Report on our Activities service stated 92% said they felt a part of a community through being involved with Berkshire Vision activities.

The funding also offered accessible transport to those that were unable to travel independently, recording 81 people up from 40, using the transport, showing a significant need for support with travelling to and from events.

Overall, 152 people have actively benefitted, with 45 volunteers doing 3022 hours.

03/09/2026

Great photos and comments. Delighted to support the project through our Communities Together Small programme.

03/09/2026

03/09/2026

Fantastic to read of the benefit our Projects for Young People funding has supported. Well done everyone involved.

This note from a parent after Friday's bootcamp made our whole weekend. 💛 (see the quote card). Thank you for taking the time to share this.

Moments like this are why we do this work. Every bootcamp is built to give girls hands-on time with tech and engineering, and to help them leave feeling more confident than when they walked in. 🛠️🤖

Thank you to our incredible mentors and volunteers who gave their time on the day, and to the parents for helping to make this possible and for your kind words. 🙏🏾

Bootcamp hosted by Plus X Innovation Slough and supported by Heathrow Community Trust and TechSoft UK Ltd

24/08/2026

We awarded a two-year grant of £30,000 in July 2024 to The Middlesex Association of the Blind through the Communities Together Large programme.

The funding was to deliver services to support elderly people with visual impairment, at every stage of their sight loss journey, helping them to retain their connections and to also integrate into a community of people who are visually impaired as well as providing digital training to reduce their digital isolation.

Referrals are received from local council Sensory and Rehabilitation Teams, from other organisations, as self-referrals or from concerned family members/friends. Once assessed, people are given a choice of services. Their Rapid Response Counselling gives ongoing talk-therapy to people who are in a crisis about sight loss. The Home Visiting Service supports people who are experiencing high levels of loneliness and are visited every week by a Support Worker or a volunteer. The nature of the visit depends on the needs of the Service User - it can range from simple befriending, to reading mail, making appointments with the GP or the hospital, doing ad hoc shopping or getting out of the house to get exercise.

These services feed into their monthly VIP groups, where people meet up with others who are also experiencing sight loss to share their challenges, their successes, and most importantly, to form new friendships A new addition to their work is IT training which started last year. Digital isolation is extreme for people with visual impairment. By supporting people to master assistive technology, people can go online.

Testimonial from one of the beneficiaries:
Nancy: “I've recently started receiving support from MAB. My support worker has been extremely helpful and has always been available for a chat and reassurance. She has put me in touch with a volunteer who has taken me out for a walk. As I'm unable to walk without assistance this has been invaluable for me and has had a very positive psychological effect on me as I feel no longer trapped in my house. I cannot praise MAB highly enough. They have given me lots of advice and have been a great support for me. They've also put me in contact with another visually impaired person on my street which again has made me feel less isolated and given me someone to talk to. And our VIP club is so much fun! My life has changed so much for better thanks to this amazing organisation and their kind and caring people! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”

The project supported 156 people from Hillingdon & Hounslow, with 36 volunteers providing 5,616 volunteer hours.