Joanna set up this Trust many years ago. Joanna has always had a keen commitment to education, the disabled and the homeless and believed it was very necessary have a charity that could help in a very particular way. So, the chief aim of her Trust is to assist the young people of Gloucestershire overcome disadvantage. Many individuals and charities have benefited over the years and everyone is most welcome to apply.
The Joanna Trollope Trust is administered by The Gloucestershire Community Foundation.
The Gloucestershire Community Foundation is a Gloucestershire based charity, which raises money in the County, manages those funds for investment and distributes the interest to other charitable causes in the county. The Gloucestershire Foundation is one of 64 members and associates of Community Foundations in the UK
To find out more please click on this link: http://www.gloucestershirecommunityfoundation.co.uk
As well as her own charity, Joanna supports those that are dear to her heart. She says, “The trouble about being an individual when it comes to charity is that there is only one of you. And one of you, with the best will in the world, can only respond to so much. In my case, it's been a question - a reluctant question - of choosing charities that had relevance to loved ones.”
for dementia: My father suffered from this dreadful disease for over a decade before his death. It reduces a person to the barest outline of themselves and leaves family and friends dealing, at best, with a travesty of the person that they once knew.
Meningitis Trust: My youngest had meningitis at seven - it is a terrifying disease that can, in its early stages, so easily be mistaken for the simple cold and, without prompt action, can lead to devastating after effects and complications.
Macmillan Nurses and Breast Cancer Care: My best friend died of breast cancer twelve years ago and these two charities offer practical and emotional support as well as support and information to people with cancer - and their families, friends and carers - from the point of diagnosis and throughout their illness.
RNIB - and in particular - the Right to Read Campaign: My own sight, without the miracle of contact lenses, is appalling. The RNIB helps anyone with a sight problem - not just with Braille, Talking Books and computer training.
However, I've always wanted, besides these personally chosen charities, to help with something that affects the wider world. And that something, as far as I'm concerned, has to do with the young; for the simple practical reason that the young are our future. But not just any young - my concern is for the disadvantaged young - and so, more recently, I have become involved with these particular charities.
The March Foundation has been set up to help children with special educational needs to reach their full potential outside the inevitable pressures of the mainstream classroom, and to achieve their own personal visions. They do this by working with teachers, students and parents towards quantifiable goals each year. Special Educational Needs children react and learn in a totally different way if they are taken out of their routine school and home surroundings, and parents and teachers have found that the response is positive and receptive.
The Mulberry Bush is a forward-thinking, non-maintained Special School which for 60 years has very successfully provided high quality integrated care and education for severely emotionally troubled children aged 5 - 12 yrs who display chaotic, disruptive and aggressive behaviour or have relationship difficulties. This year I was honoured to become a Patron.
