Trans and Gender-diverse people to receive support thanks to local community grant

A Trans and Gender Diverse charity is ensuring that trans and gender-diverse people across Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom are treated with dignity and respect in both life and death, helped by a grant from Tesco.

The Gender Identity Research & Education Society (GIRES) – a charity whose mission is to work with and support the trans and gender diverse communities – was voted by customers in local stores to receive the £1,000 grant from Tesco as part of its Community Grant scheme, to support their project to ensure that trans and gender diverse people in Wales are treated equally and respectfully when they die.

GIRES is one of thousands of projects that Tesco Community Grants have supported and proudly features as an example of the supermarket’s work across the UK, in the Tesco’s Community Impact Report, published this week. Projects that tackle homelessness, support families of Servicepeople, encourage diversity and provide Covid 19 support are also highlighted.

The report, created in partnership with the charity Groundwork, who run the Tesco Community Grants scheme, celebrates the successes of the grant funding programme, which has been helping communities since 2015 and breaks down how the £100m of Community Grants was allocated over that time.

Since it began, Tesco has awarded £101,881,339 in funding to 50,880 community projects.  The grant awards were decided by 738,402,011 votes cast by Tesco customers in stores across the UK using their iconic blue tokens.

Breakdown of grants by project focus:

GIRES works in collaboration with other charities and groups with similar aims and goals to improve the environments in which trans and gender-diverse people live.

Supported by over 300 individuals, GIRES offers a variety of services to ensure that the rights of trans and gender diverse people are upheld throughout their lives and afterwards.

With the £1,000 Tesco grant, GIRES will look to achieve a number of things to improve the care given to the trans and gender diverse community in death, such as strengthening the evidence base on the needs of trans and gender diverse people in death and bereavement care, improve the knowledge, skills and confidence of funeral and bereavement workers when supporting trans and gender diverse people and much more.

Ash Hayhurst, Being Ready Project Manager said: “We cannot thank Tesco enough for this funding. Our mission is to work with and collaborate with all who share in our beliefs and values to uphold the rights of trans and gender diverse communities.

“Everyone should be able to feel safe and comfortable in their own bodies and communities without fear of being treated differently and this should also be the case in death. No one should feel as though they must hide any part of themselves in order to receive adequate care and support.

Claire De Silva, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “We’re delighted that we can help groups such as GIRES. Tesco Community Grants invites our customers to vote using their blue token for local schemes they feel are important to help our communities thrive, and it’s so good to see the impact that the funding makes.”

The Tesco Community Grants scheme awards funds to charities and community organisations that make a positive difference to their communities, with £500, £1,000 and £1,500 available. The scheme is run in partnership with the Groundwork charity.

Graham Duxbury, Groundwork’s UK Chief Executive, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Tesco to provide these much-needed funds, which will help to support local communities.”

To apply for a Tesco Community Grant, visit https://tescocommunitygrants.org.uk/.

To access the full Impact Report go to https://tescocommunitygrants.org.uk/what-weve-funded/