The High Sheriff Fund is a charitable fund that supports causes throughout the county of Herefordshire. The Fund is managed by Herefordshire Community Foundation and awards are advised by the High Sheriff. Awards typically support voluntary and community groups whose work impacts positively on law and order as well as community cohesion.
Throughout the year the High Sheriff will meet many such groups, whilst at the same time organising fund raising events such as the Shrieval Lecture to support deserving causes.
Examples of Previous Grants Dispersed from April ’18 to March ’26
High Sheriff 2025/26 – Helen Bowden
Helen organised a number of fund raising events including the Shrieval Lecture (a talk on free speech by Lord Sumption), a Golf Day at The Herefordshire, abseiling down St Peter’s Church in Hereford in aid of the Fire Service Charity, and with the Chair of Herefordshire Magistrates, Sue Furnival, a skydive from 15,000 feet. In making her awards, she prioritised support for youth services with a focus on deterring offending. The following awards were made.
| The Cart Shed | £1,500.00 | Young Cartshed helps young people who are struggling with their mental health, often neuro diverse. Many children are absent from school through anxiety, some unable to get out of their bedrooms/houses. The Cartshed environment is proven to help build confidence. The grant will contribute towards group activities in the woods offering therapeutic support to young people aged 13-18. It will support 15 individuals to attend a four hour day. |
| Haygrove Community Gardens | £1,500.00 | Transforming waste land in Leominster into a vibrant inclusive garden for the community. It follows the model of the successful Ross community garden. This award allows purchase of a wooden gazebo structure as the central area for gathering. The garden will be a base for activities for the local community including children and young people, families, people with disabilities and long-term health conditions, and those with other needs including those living in temporary accommodation, and will be designed and created by these groups with support from local residents. |
| Open Arms Kington (OAK) | £1,500.00 | OAK is a community organisation who have bought an old pub and are turning it into a community hub for Kington. They already help many families and isolated individuals, this money the start of their youth provision and engagement. This award will enable delivery of 3-4 activities with young people during the Easter and Summer holidays, which would not be otherwise possible. |
| Ledbury Community Hub | £1,416.15 | Launch of a town-wide newsletter to be delivered to every household in Ledbury will present a singular, cohesive offering of youth services and activities. This newsletter will be tangible proof that “Ledbury Listens and Acts.” It demonstrates to our youth that they are cared for, they belong, and their input leads to real-world change.The newsletter will feature calls to action, inviting young people to step into leadership roles and support one another. |
| @thehub CIC | £1,500.00 | A boxing training gym, to help disaffected, excluded and neurodiverse young people to manage emotions, make better choices and live better lives. Plan is to create a boxing training gym @The Hub. Liaison with The City of Hereford Boxing Academy, we train mentors and coaches to offer sessions to young people in Ross. This is not a youth club – these young people are generally excluded from any other youth-based organised activities in town. |
| HAND (Hereford) | £1,000.00 | Series of sessions for youngsters 11yr-16yr who are on the autistic and neuro diverse spectrum.
In a safe environment allowing them to meet for two hour sessions, taking part in shared activities including arts and craft, music, movie nights and social events. Many of our youngsters do not have any contact with peers outside school, do not have friendship groups and do not access out of school activities because of anxiety. The main outcome wanted by the youngsters was to “meet someone like them” and to “find a friend”. |
| Hereford Youth Canoe Club | £1,453.95 | Create a modern and robust new system where all safeguarding is recorded professionally and accurately and able to share with necessary services safely. We will be able to securely hold all members and volunteers details securely. We are aspiring to subscribe to a suitable software/cloud based booking system to allow parents and carers to pay online for sessions to prevent young people carrying cash to and from session. |
| Young Carers | £302.62 | Herefordshire Young and Young Adult Carers provide support and respite for children as young as 10 or 11 who look after family members with illness. This award helped towards a group trip to the Small Breeds Farm in Kington, accompanied by the High Sheriff. |
| Churchill Gardens, Hereford | £840.00 | This is a popular space with students but has seen serious crimes. This award provided a tree survey to facilitate landscaping work to open up the gardens to make crime less likely. The overall project will include new seating, funded by Herefordshire Freemasons. |
High Sheriff 2024/25 – Patricia Churchward
| The Houghton Project | £5,000.00 |
| ECHO | £1,500.00 |
| 3 Degreez | £2,500.00 |
| @the Hub | £5,000.00 |
| Close Houe | £2,500.00 |
| Herefordshire Veterans Support | £2,500.00 |
| Crimestoppers | £436.38 |
| Hinton Community Centre | £5,000.00 |
| Bromyard Food Bank | £2,152.46 |
| Hereford Cathedral | £1,000.00 |
High Sheriff 2023/24 – Robert Robinson
The 2023-2024 High Sheriffs Fund opened to applicants on 8th January and closed on 5th February.
50 applications were received, 30 shortlisted and 12 selected. HVOSS and Herefordshire Community Fund, who summarized applications and conducted due diligence, provided invaluable insight.
The final selection was made on the basis of which applicants would do most to advance the life chances of those who would ultimately benefit from the grants.
Each successful applicant has been allocated £1000, which is more or less what each of them sought for their projects.
The successful applicants were:
| The Cart Shed, Norton Canon | £1,000.00 | Alternative funded learning for young school non-attenders, with emphasis on mental health |
| Close House, Hereford | £1,000.00 | Bursary and incentives for young volunteers to choose this constructive path over others |
| Community Chaplaincy Association: (A Vennture-supported project) | £1,000.00 | Support for ex-offenders returning to Herefordshire (referencing successful models already in place elsewhere) |
| Cracked Slipper, Hereford | £1,000.00 | Equipment to support personal development for neurodivergent young people |
| H&W Community First Responders, Ross on Wye | £1,000.00 | New equipment and First Aid Training for new volunteers: Training defibrillators, resuscitation mannequin, PPE etc |
| Hereford City of Sanctuary | £1,000.00 | Cycling skills to give mobility and social engagement opportunities to (mainly female Afghan and Syrian) refugees |
| Herefordshire FA | £1,000.00 | Training and equipment for Young Offenders to become football referees |
| Herefordshire Young Carers | £1,000.00 | Respite and support for young people who have a dependent disabled or drug/alcohol disrupted family member |
| Hope Support Services | £1,000.00 | Support for bereaved young people whose lives are destabilized by the loss of a parent or other close family member |
| Longlands CIO | £1,000.00 | Replacing PPE for 8-14 year old NEETs for cooking, woodwork and supervised work experience outside |
| “Revive” Community Café | £1,000.00 | A new lounge facility for female ex-offenders to help them back into mainstream living |
| South Wye Development Trust | £1,000.00 | Mother and baby/toddler group sessions to reduce mothers’ isolation and aid child development |
High Sheriff 2022/23 – Sarah de Rohan
| Melody Dance Company | £1,000.00 | Working in partnership with West mercia police and the safer neighbourhood southside team to host a free weekly dance session to a local Hereford school who have received negative ofsted reports |
| ECHO (for extra choices) | £1,000.00 | Working on a new show finding new ways to engage with the issue of hate crime. We are using forum theatre, getting school students to work alongside our actors to experience and unpick a real scenario acted by About Face actors. |
| 3Degreez Allstarz CIC | £1,000.00 | This project is aimed at giving our coaches the education they need to deliver existing sessions to our 200+ members as well as supporting outreach projects such as Hinton’s Fit & Fed programme, HAF, this girl can, school games to name a few. |
| Phoenix Bereavement Support | £1,000.00 | Within Youth and Wellbeing Groups (ages 12-18), the focus is on providing a welcoming safe space, where young people feel comfortable in sharing experiences. They are supported to tell their story through focused therapeutic exercises. |
| The CLD Trust | £825.00 | Deliver counselling and other therapeutic mental health interventions to children and young people and their families. Whiteboards may seem a simplistic resource, but they are crucial in helping young people to fully engage with what they are doing. |
| The Knife Angel | £1,000.00 | This is an innovative project allowing young people to come together and discuss topics associated with violence and aggression informally. Every secondary school in Herefordshire, along with youth groups throughout the county are invited to write and perform a 20 minute show to be judged in public on the 15th July 2023 at the Bishop’s Palace. |
| The Cart Shed | £1,000.00 | The new young Cartshed site: A new site has been identified to establish within the woods at Devereux Wootton. This will enable sessions to be run that work for schools during term time, and holiday clubs as providing scope to run sessions any day of the week. The new site will be tailored to reflect the range of activities offered to young people, such as preparing and cooking a meal together, building dens and playing games as well as our traditional craft-based activities. |
| Herefordshire Vennture | £1,000.00 | Offering training to the young people who voluntee to offer assistance and guidance to those who are intoxicated or incapacitated on the city streets at night. |
| Hereford Rugby Club | £450.00 | This organisation and the below were all selected by the High Sheriff for Support |
| Leominster Police boxing | £450.00 | |
| Gen z youth Hub | £450.00 | |
| Museum | £450.00 | |
| Herefordshire Girl Guides | £450.00 | |
| South Wye Police boxing acadamy | £450.00 | |
| Close House | £450.00 | |
| The Courtyard – for education/youth drama | £450.00 | |
| The Cracked slipper company | £450.00 | |
| 2 Faced Dance | £450.00 | |
| Growing Point | £450.00 | |
| Herefordshire Scouts – South Marches District Scout Council | £450.00 | |
| Herefordshire FA | £450.00 | |
| Hope Centre, Bromyard | £450.00 | |
| Longlands Care | £450.00 |
High Sheriff 2021/22 – Jo Hilditch
| Knife Angel Exhibition | £2,500.00 | Towards the cost of holding the Hereford Knife Angel Exhibition. |
| Big Sleep In Donation to Cartshed | £4,942.59 | The Big Sleep In was to raise funds for project costs of the Cart Shed. |
| Herefordshire Vennture | £2,000.00 | To help individuals & families in desperate need of urgent support providing household items such as cookers, fridges or flooring. |
| HOPE Family Centre | £1,938.00 | To provide additional IT for used at the HOPE Centre by the community who do not have access to IT equipment, to enable them to apply for benefits, jobs & provide any digital communication. |
| Ely Memorial Fund | £1,000.00 | To help fund the Young Driver Experience week providing driving lessions by professional trainers for 14 to 17 year olds to encourage safer driving when they learn to drive. |
| Herefordshire Growing Point | £1,000.00 | To provide 3 three wooden colds frames & a tool shed to increase capaicity to grow salad produce. |
| Herefordshire Night Shelter | £1,500.00 | Towards a new website for the organisation. |
| We are Farming Minds | £1,000.00 | To provide a branded gazebo/show stand for events. |
| Yeleni Therapy & Support | £1,500.00 | Towards project costs for the new phone befriending service running alongside the main activities. |
| Longlands Care Farm | £500.00 | To purchase new animal clippers for students undertaking animal/equine units for Gity & Guilds Level 1 landbased animal & equine courses. |
| The Cart Shed | £1,400.00 | To run 2 new master classes to learn new greenwood skills not previously available at the Cart Shed. |
| CLD Trust | £1,723.63 | To purchase new PC monitors for therapeutic & admin staff and a bank laptop for use by counsellors. |
| Leominster in Bloom | £971.40 | To purchase two new 3 tier planters for locations within Leominster. |
| Close House Projects | £2,000.00 | To subsidise Youth Work training for the Youth Work team of 5 Youth Workers & future volunteers & young leaders. |
| ECHO | £2,000.00 | Towards updating the Priory Centre kitchen. |
| West Mercia Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre | £2,000.00 | To purchase a set of handheld audience response devices, to be used to create a more interactive experience for young people in face-to-face delivery of Purple Leaf Education sessions. |
| Herefordshire Board Gamers | £500.00 | Towards advertising the organisation. |
| Herefordshire MIND | £2,000.00 | Towards the core costs of funding the salaries of art and music therapists who run the ArtSpace and Well Springs groups. |
| hvoss | £1,194.00 | To purchase professional quality promotional banners, signage, leaflets and corporate uniforms for staff to help promote the services of the No Wrong Door youth services |
| Megan Baker House | £500.00 | To purchase additional sensory equipment. |
| Houghton Project | £2,000.00 | To develop and market the cider, perry and juice produced by participants with earning disabilities, mental health problems, autism or people recovering from brain injuries. |
| Borderlands Rural Chaplaincy | £1,000.00 | To help fund the Butty Van and Butty Break providing farmers’ breakfast events designed to foster community resilience and enable early intervention, preventing causes of stress from becoming more serious by giving people opportunities to talk. |
| 2 Faced Dance | £1,000.00 | Funding outreach work. |
| Herefordshire Veteran Support Centre | £2,000.00 | Towards improving the mobility access to the centre and enhancing facilities for staff, volunteers, other agencies and centre clients. |
High Sheriff 2020/21 – Tricia Thomas
| Vennture | £1,000.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Basement Youth Trust | £500.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Phoenix Bereavement | £500.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| West Mercia Search & Rescue | £500.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Herefordshire Vocational Training | £1,000.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Longlands | £1,000.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Leominster Food Bank | £300.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| West Mercia Womens Aid | £1,000.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Herefordshire Veterans Support Centre | £800.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Worcs Assoc of Carers | £200.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Hinton Community Assocation | £1,000.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Leominster Meeting Centre | £300.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Close House Projects | £500.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Just the Job Book Tokens | £2,747.90 | Book tokens for careers project for primary schools |
| Knife Angel Exhibition | £2,500.00 | Towards the cost of holding the Hereford Knife Angel Exhibition. |
High Sheriff 2019/20 – James Hervey-Bathurst
| Avenbury Care Farm | £800.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| ECHO | £800.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Aspire Living | £800.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| YSS Ltd | £800.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Hereford Cider Museum | £800.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| HOPE for Children | £800.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Hope Support Services | £800.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
High Sheriff 2018/19 – Nat Hone
| Catch 22 Charity | £200.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Hereford Mock Trials | £750.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Vennture | £1,000.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Ely Memorial Trust | £1,000.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Hope Support Services | £750.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Papyrus | £500.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Music Pool | £500.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Hereford Music Fund | £1,000.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| YSS-2018/19 High Sheriff Chosen Charities | £1,000.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Hereford MIND | £1,000.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Hereford Aspire | £500.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Close House | £250.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| SHYPP | £250.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Kempson Players | £250.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| South Wye Boxing Club | £500.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |
| Herefordshire Headway | £750.00 | Discretionary grant towards project costs. |