Riverside Foundation

Riverside Foundation is a charity that provides practical support to help people overcome obstacles and improve their quality of life.

Two people dance together in a communal lounge

Our Purpose

Our charity Riverside Foundation exists to provide practical support to help people overcome obstacles for a better quality of life.

The Foundation supports a diverse range of projects aimed at promoting community action and cohesion, and help to build a brighter future.

Our strategic priorities

The Riverside Foundation focuses on three main priorities:

Changing lives together

Every conversation, every service and every partnership helps create better outcomes for the people and communities we serve. These highlights show the impact we've made together in 2025/26.

Riverside support services

Riverside Foundation helps people in our community by offering:

Money and benefits advice to help you manage budgets and claim support.
Employment and training to help build skills and find a job.
Tailored and intensive housing support to customers who are at risk of losing their home.

Helping Hand Fund

Our Helping Hand Fund provides quick support during difficult times by offering:

Emergency grants to cover immediate needs in a crisis.
One-off essential items like replacing broken cookers, buying interview clothes, or supplying energy vouchers.

During 2025/26 Helping Hand provided over 3000 awards to help with one off purchases.

If you are looking for help and support, please visit our Money and benefits advice pages.

The Riverside Foundation Community Fund

The Community Fund is a dedicated funding pot for grassroots community projects.

Since it’s launch in 2022 we’re proud to have supported nearly 200 projects.

Over the past year (25/26) 95 different projects were supported across the country addressing issues that matter to communities.

Through the Community Fund a wide range of activities have taken place within communities including community events, warm hubs, environmental projects, and initiatives for young people

Further information and how to apply, visit our Community Fund.

Strategic Projects

The Foundation also supports strategic projects which aim to address key issues in targeted neighbourhoods across the Riverside geography.

Current projects include:

A community hub in Hull
A period poverty project in Stoke, Thanet & Tower Hamlets
A counselling project in Cumbria
A youth project operating in schools across Hull, Halton, Carlisle and Tower Hamlets
A project supporting families in Dumfries

The Foundation has also supported Riverside’s partnership with Can Cook CIC with just under £1m over three years allocated to supporting a roll out of its successful Well-Fed project to Cheshire East, Greater Manchester and Wirral.

For more information and how to get involved please visit the Well Fed Programme.