We are now in the final days for you to cast your votes as our readers’ choice cash for charities scheme is coming to a close.
The Argus is giving local charities the chance to take a share of an amazing £128,000 cash giveaway.
Our parent company’s charitable arm, The Gannett Foundation, is providing £128,000 in cash to support local charities across the country and we are delighted to have a £16,000 share to give away in our area.
We asked you to decide where this money should be spent.
You nominated in your thousands and our editorial team chose a shortlist of ten charities from these nominations that will share in the £16,000.
In Sussex, three charities made the final shortlist – East Sussex WRAS, Albion in the Community and Team Domenica.
East Sussex WRAS
Founded in 1996, East Sussex Wildlife Rescue Ambulance Service (WRAS) provides a 24-hour rescue line for wildlife casualties across Sussex.
The WRAS, based in Whitesmith, deals with calls from the public and other animal welfare organisations, providing the service free of charge.
“We deal with 5000 rescues every year and the more we build in this county, the more pressure there is on our wildlife,” said Trevor Wicks MBE, founder of East Sussex WRAS.
“Wildlife is part of our heritage and if we do not take care of it, East Sussex will not be a nice place to live in.”
Mr Wicks said the funding would be really helpful because it would go towards expanding capacity.
“Our workload is constantly increasing and wildlife charities get a rough deal because they get much less funding than conservation.
“The problem we have at the moment is our current hospital is up to capacity and we need to look at expanding
“The funding would go towards a new hospital to increase our capacity so we can save even more wildlife.”
Team Domenica
Team Domenica, based in Brighton, helps young people with learning disabilities find and retain meaningful employment.
Through a training centre, training cafe and employment centre, Team Domenica provides employment programmes to young people with a wide range of abilities to help those with learning disabilities lead fulfilling and purposeful lives.
The charity is named after the founder Rosa Monckton’s daughter Domenica who has Down’s Syndrome.
“What we are hoping to achieve as part of this campaign is to fund some equipment for our kitchen and uniforms for our staff,” said Marion Clarke, fundraising manager at Team Domenica.
“As a charity, we are showing the benefits the public can experience by interacting with young people with learning disabilities.
“We are challenging preconceptions and rules by showing the benefits of inclusive workspaces.”
The charity said the funding would be a “huge boost”.
“It is a difficult time for everyone and we are finding it really challenging. An important source of our funding is gifts from the public and people are finding it more difficult to give when their finances are stretched,” said Ms Clarke.
Albion in the Community
AITC is the official charity of Brighton and Hove Albion, using the power of football to engage and inspire people to change their lives and help them get active and learn new skills.
“Albion in the Community has been delivering Disability Football programmes for over 25 years, providing inclusive football sessions for players with a disability at venues throughout Sussex,” said Laura Webb, trusts and foundation executive at AITC.
“More funding will help support us to make football accessible for as many individuals as possible.”
The charity is seeking funding to support its disability specific sessions delivered by their specialist team .
The sessions are designed to help participants to improve their health and wellbeing, but also their confidence, and self-esteem, giving opportunities for participants to socialise with their peers in a safe environment.
Matt Dorn, CEO at Albion in the Community, said: "We're really pleased to have been nominated for this scheme. We appreciate any support we can get, and every penny we receive will help fund our life-changing work in communities all over Sussex.
"We work with around 40,000 people every year and these funds will help us to make a real difference in their lives."
How to cast your vote
Now we are in the final week of giving you, our readers, the power to allocate the cash.
You are invited to collect tokens from our newspaper which can then be taken to collection points across our region or posted.
The tokens are being printed in The Argus every day, so grab a copy to cast your vote. Each token collected will then be used to allocate cash to the nominated charity – so if your favourite charity collects 50 per cent of all the tokens collected, it will receive 50 per cent of the £16,000.
Tokens should be sent to Readers’ Choice, Echo House, Howard Chase, Basildon, SS14 3BE. They can also be dropped off at collection points at the charities, which will then forward them.
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