The Shears Foundation is proud to have supported a diverse range of charities over our 26 year history. Our trustees work hard to select groups that best help us achieve our objectives across all our priority areas. The groups below have been kind enough to share their story for our website. We hope they give you a flavour of what we do and bring alive the impact of The Shears Foundation.

Frozen Light creates and extensively tours high quality multi sensory theatre for audiences with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD).

Youth Leads UK is an entirely youth-led charity. They are transforming youth representation and leadership for working class young people aged 14-25 in Greater Manchester. They do this through peer-led programmes of volunteering, social action projects, and learning experiences, and by amplifying the voice of young people with key decision makers.

Haemochromatosis UK support over 14,000 families every year to live well with iron overload disorder. It’s the UK’s most common genetic condition, directly affecting over 380,000 people. Although it is commonplace, the condition is significantly under-diagnosed in the UK.

FoodCycle’s vision is to make food poverty, loneliness and food waste a thing of the past for every community. With community dining, week in, week out we feed the hungry and give company to the lonely in our communities; providing delicious meals and great conversation, and using food which would otherwise go to waste.

Jennyruth Workshops offers a fun and vibrant workplace experience for adults who have learning disabilities. With tailored support from staff and volunteers, our team of ‘workers’ are involved in all aspects of the business, the focus of which is the production of a range of high quality, hand-crafted products.

Abram Wilson runs an innovative and award-winning schools programme called Future Sound. Our workshops focus on skills that students simply aren’t offered as part of their in-school music curriculum, including composition, songwriting, performance skills, recording music and building a career in the music industry.

Over the years that The Shears Foundation have been supporting Seven Stories, our learning work has grown beyond our first expectations in its reach and variety.

The Shears Foundation have supported the Roots and Shoots Project at The Alnwick Garden for over 9 years. In this time their generous support has helped over 2000 young people from schools across Northumberland to benefit from hands on gardening and health education activities.

WFN gives funding, training and recognition to local conservation leaders working in resource-poor, biodiversity-rich countries. We offer three types of grant to enable conservationists to scale up their vital work and make a real and measurable difference to wildlife and local communities.

Water Harvest works with rural communities to help them secure a sustainable source of clean water all year round. Having worked in northwest India we’re now excitingly expanding in sub-Saharan Africa.

Each year West End Refugee Service welcomes, helps and empowers over 500 men and women who have fled persecution and supports their integration into the wider community.

Based in Yorkshire, Open Country is a charity dedicated to empowering individuals with disabilities or mental health conditions to access and enjoy the countryside. Our mission is to break down barriers and ensure that everyone, regardless of ability, can experience the wonders of nature.