For over 20 years, the Steve Morgan Foundation has supported Venus Charity in achieving its ambitions with and for its service users. Through listening closely to the lived experience of its clients, we have provided funding for the charity’s family support programmes and helped to strengthen its infrastructure.

The long term, core funding offered with our Associate Charities partnership will future proof Venus Charity and enable it to achieve its ambition of securing a new building for its operations, and build on the success of The Star Centre, its therapeutic centre for young people.

About Venus Charity

Venus is a grassroots charity based in Bootle and Halton. It was founded in 1994, responding to a need for women’s services in South Sefton. Over the last 29 years it has grown its services to include:

• Family support
• Support for homeless people and refugees/asylum seekers with their tenancies
• Therapeutic mental health services to young people
• Advice and support via its hub, The Venus Centre, based in Linacre Lane Bootle

Adopting a holistic approach, the charity provides crucial, direct support to around 2,000 people per year.

Fully embedded in the community

The Venus team is fully embedded in the community and has an open door policy. Money pledged by the Steve Morgan Foundation will cover its CEO’s salary costs, releasing her time from fundraising so that she can concentrate on securing a larger space for Venus Charity, creating a financial strategy and strengthening the charity’s crisis intervention offering.

In the last six months since becoming Associate Charity partners, the charity has:

1. Conducted a time and motion study of use of the Venus Centre to understand what space is needed and for what purpose. The study has helped the charity to understand the flow throughout the building and where increased space is needed.
2. Worked collaboratively with Alder Hey Hospital, Sefton Council Early Help team and Health Education England to secure additional Recruit to Train studentships, in particular for parenting and 0-5 mental health provision. Venus Charity will host 10 students, including a new parenting team.
3. Strengthened crisis intervention and frontline hub services through working in partnership with local business FPC, helping to support crisis, rising debt and energy costs facing the community. As part of this, Venus Charity has taken over a local shop to broaden provision in the community.

“The Steve Morgan Foundation takes the time to understand our work and why our presence and actions are needed and wanted by our communities. It has supported us through difficult times and also in times of unprecedented growth.” – Sue Potts, CEO of Venus Charity

Go to the Venus Charity website

The Steve Morgan Foundation first worked with Neo Community back in 2016, providing much-needed funding at a crucial, early stage of the charity, when it had newly relocated to Rock Ferry and taken over the Beaconsfield Community House. This funding enabled the charity to move from being a small, grass-roots social enterprise to the Wirral-wide community development charity that it is today.

About Neo Community

Neo Community was established in 2013 in response to a growing need for social support and cohesion within the Wirral community. Neo stands for NEED, ENGAGE and ORGANISE community-led change. The organisation was established to identify gaps, listen to community voices, empower communities, and facilitate the delivery of activities, campaigns, and strategies to overcome adversity, local issues and increase community participation and pride.

The organisation’s founders recognised the challenges faced by individuals from vulnerable backgrounds, including the elderly, people with disabilities, and those struggling with mental health issues, and sought to create a platform for people to connect, share experiences, and receive support.

Over the last ten years, Neo Community has grown to become an award winning provider of food assistance and grassroots help across the Wirral and North Wales. The charity promotes the growth of self-sustaining, resilient communities, and is at the forefront of reducing food waste.

A beacon of hope in the Wirral

From its base at the Beaconsfield Community House, Neo Community has implemented a range of activities and programmes, including:

• Community events like fairs, picnics, and celebrations that bring together people from various backgrounds, fostering a sense of unity and camaraderie.
• Support groups for individuals facing specific challenges, such as mental health issues, disability, or bereavement. These groups provide a safe space to share experiences and receive emotional support.
• Training workshops on various life skills, including financial management, job-seeking techniques, and digital literacy, with the aim of empowering individuals to improve their quality of life and become more self-reliant.
• Social Supermarket and Community Café – Neo Community has nurtured and maintained strong links with local supermarkets and food retailers, allowing it to develop a comprehensive surplus food and supplies offering. The charity operates a ‘pay-as-you-feel’ system for all of its services.

Proudly achieving charity status in March 2019, Neo Community has continued to broaden, develop and deliver its range of services. In the last 12 months, it has fed 15,680 children, saved £171,000 using surplus food, and engaged with over 12,600 individuals.

“Without the trust and belief from the Steve Morgan Foundation, Neo Community would never have been able to have the impact it has had as a charity across Wirral and North Wales. The Foundation has provided crucial partnership funding when we’ve needed it the most, including Steve Morgan Emergency Funding during the pandemic, support with staff wages, and our first food chiller van.” – Ema Wilkes, CEO and founder of Neo Community

Go to the Neo Community website

Our relationship with Fun 4 Kidz began back in 2008, when the Steve Morgan Foundation presented the charity with a runner up award for Best Business Providing Economic and Social Contribution. Since then, we have continued our support, from providing vital funds through the pandemic to supporting the charity with taking on the management of a community centre.

About Fun 4 Kidz


Established in 1998, Fun 4 Kidz is a registered charity that runs out-of-school childcare across nine afterschool clubs, three holiday clubs and three breakfast clubs within eight different communities across Merseyside. In total, it provides activities for over 800 children per week, ensuring that all children in attendence have the opportunity to make friends, learn and develop through play and having fun.

The charity also runs the L30 community centre. Hosting numerous activities, from social groups and courses to exercise classes and childcare, the centre is a space for community members to meet, get to know each other, make friends, and share their ideas and skills.

A place for people to come together

When the charity faced an uncertain future during the pandemic, the Steve Morgan Foundation stepped in to provide core funding, acting as a lifeline to enable the organisation initially just to stay open, and then to recover from such a challenging period.

At a time when all the income Fun 4 Kidz generated ceased, funding from the Foundation covered core costs, which meant the organisation could continue functioning for the community in Netherton during that difficult time. This has greatly contributed to Netherton now being a stronger, connected community, with the L30 Centre recognised as the place for people to come together.

Not only did Fun 4 Kidz recover, but it came back even stronger, with its out of school clubs the busiest they have ever been. We recognised Fun 4 Kidz’ achievements with a runner up award for Greatest Local Impact in our 2022 Anniversary Awards.

“We feel so lucky and immensely proud to have been chosen by the Steve Morgan Foundation to be one of its Associate Charities, and to be receiving £50,000 of unrestricted funding per year for 10 years. This is huge for our organisation; it means we can plan long term, develop and grow what we already do, and also be creative and flexible to respond to families in the community and how they feel funding could be used for the greatest benefit.” – Debbie Stephens, Chief Executive at Fun 4 Kidz. 

Go to Fun 4 Kidz website

The Steve Morgan Foundation and St Andrew’s Community Network have been working together for almost a decade, with the Foundation providing the charity with a number of funding programmes prior to, during, and beyond the pandemic years.

Funding through the partnership will help with St Andrew’s Community Network’s staff costs, so its team can continue to resource over 20 other organisations in the region, all with a shared goal to design out poverty and build sustainable communities that bring belonging, change, connection, and purpose.

About St Andrew’s Community Network

The St Andrew’s Community Network connects churches and community organisations and equips them with the tools needed to free people from the life affecting consequences of poverty.

Operating across North Liverpool, the Network co-ordinates the North Liverpool Foodbank, provides debt and benefits advice and volunteering opportunities, and is committed to creating sustainable food provision in partnership with Your Local Pantry.

The charity is committed to building a strong and successful network, so that support over a range of issues may be offered by communities and for their communities.

Futures filled with hope

Effecting locally rooted change from within, the St Andrew’s Community Network helps people not just to make ends meet, but to find direction, purpose, and to step into futures filled with hope and opportunity.

Since its inception in 2003, it has delivered a unique model of care, ensuring that every person that engages with the Network can access short or the long-term opportunities to:

• Build financial resilience
• Build food security
• Belong to a sustainable and caring community

These three endeavours form the fundamental components of the charity’s “change toolkit”.

As the cost-of-living crisis rains on, St Andrew’s Community Network will continue its work on the frontline of tackling poverty and providing crisis support to those most in need, through resourcing crucial financial advice and emergency food provisions. Using funding from the Steve Morgan Foundation, the charity hopes to increase this element of its work even further over the coming years.

“The Steve Morgan Foundation’s partnership provides a unique opportunity to work alongside other organisations that share our commitment to see lives and communities changed. It is a privilege to be supported in this way, and we look forward to sharing our experiences as a charity and learning from others who work alongside the Steve Morgan Foundation.” – Rich Jones, CEO of St Andrew’s Community Network

Go to St Andrew’s Website

When Ykids became a registered charity in 2004, the Steve Morgan Foundation was one of the first funders to believe and invest in it. In fact, we helped support its first ever employee! We have continued our support over the years, including providing funding to save a highly successful and impactful project the charity was leading.

About Ykids

First established as a voluntary group in 1988, Ykids works to bring hope to at risk and vulnerable young people in Bootle, which ranks amongst the 1-2% most deprived areas in the UK. Their vision is to raise ‘World Changers’ – young people who are equipped to make a difference in their own lives and in the world around them, in an environment where they feel safe and loved, and lead happy, productive and ambitious lives.

Cutting giants down to size!

Ykids offers a range of invaluable services, events and activities to the community in Bootle, from Kingsley&Co, its steampunk Victorian explorer themed children’s bookshop and literacy project, to Giant Slayers, the charity’s own CBT programme, which helps children gain practical skills to ‘cut their giants (worries) down to size’.

Other services and projects run by Ykids include:

• Focus groups on wellbeing, mentoring, citizenship, belonging, skills development, sport, and the arts
• Family support, such as peer mentoring, training, one-to-one support, a community pantry, parents book club, and a wellbeing drop in
• Young leadership training through apprenticeships, placements, internships, and work experience
• Community projects like litter picks, mural painting, social action projects and large-scale events
• Education in 35 local schools, through offering assemblies, mentoring, self-esteem and curricular enhancing projects
• Faith – Ykids has a Christian ethos and offers training and support to churches in effective outreach to their communities

With funding from the Steve Morgan Foundation, Ykids has exciting plans for the future. This includes opening a larger Kingsley&Co bookshop in a prime location in Bootle town centre, which, in addition to addressing poor literacy and lack of opportunity, will also help Ykids to generate an income to support its long term sustainability.

“The continued backing we have received has made such a huge difference, and we couldn’t operate without it – but it has been so much more than grants. There has been genuine interest in our work, partnership working, advice, training, and networking opportunities that have been invaluable. The Steve Morgan Foundation is more than just a funder, and there is a genuine feeling of being known and valued by all of its trustees.” – Claire Morgans, Founder and CEO of Ykids

Go to Ykids website