Small charities and voluntary groups have shared more than £128,000 in funding from Dorset Community Foundation.

The money will help projects tackling social problems including poverty, disadvantage and isolation.

Its Neighbourhood Fund targets smaller groups and charities working in communities to help make life better for people with grants of up to £5,000.

The latest round of funding has supported 34 groups across Dorset.

They include Bournemouth Foodbank, which is using a £4,997 grant to launch a fortnightly Recovery Café at its Garden Rooms café in De Haviland Road, Boscombe.

The café will support people who already use the foodbank and are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

Rio Argent, Grants and Fundraising Manager, said the grant would cover the costs of a chef, a barista and food with the café being staffed by volunteers with experience of the issues its guests will be facing.

She added: “We will use food and drink as a gateway in engaging with this group in our community offering a new way of preventing relapse.”

Other recipients include Nature Connection Dorset which will use a £2,500 grant to run a series of 20 creative nature walks in and around Bournemouth.

They will be targeted at people struggling with mental health conditions, carers and those who have experienced domestic violence.

Escapeline, which works in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole to prevent young people from being recruited into county lines drug gangs, has received £5,000.

Founder Lisa Hooper said it will cover the cost of assemblies and workshops in schools.

And Arts education charity Creative Kids in Boscombe has been awarded £4,800 to grow its Unbox Project.

The one-to-one drawing and talking courses are for children and young people struggling with trauma or waiting for NHS mental health services.

Grant Robson, Dorset Community Foundation’s Chief Executive, said: “Thanks to the generosity of our donors we are able to use this fund to support the work of 34 brilliant grassroots groups who are working so hard to tackle a variety of issues in their community.

“They have the passion and the expertise to improve the lives of people living in their neighbourhoods so we are really pleased to be able to give them the resources to continue making such a huge and vital difference.

“This fund is always oversubscribed and I’d be ready to talk to anyone who’d like to support it so that we can empower many more groups like these.”

The next round of applications for the Neighbourhood Fund open in November.

• dorsetcommunityfoundation.org

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