This year, Motability, the Charity, is launching six new grant programmes, committing £50 million in funding over the next three financial years to organisations across the UK who can help fill gaps in existing transport services for disabled people. The first two programmes -Community Transport and Wheelchair Sector grants, launched in April and Motability is still actively encouraging organisations to apply for funding.
Today, Motability is launching another two new programmes – Active Travel Grants and Research Grants. These are two key areas where our research and insight through engagement has shown that providing grant funding to other charities and organisations will have a great impact. This could be through identifying and understanding problems and finding potential solutions, or by helping disabled people right now to make more of the journeys they want to, while Motability continues its research and innovation work into longer-term solutions to make all transport accessible.
Barry Le Grys, Chief Executive of Motability said: “We are thrilled to be launching these two new grant programmes. Motability has historically been known for providing grants to Scheme customers, and whilst that is still an important part of our work, we are incredibly excited to be using our charitable funds to help even more disabled people. So many fantastic charities and organisations are already doing so much to help disabled people access the transport they need, and through our new grant programmes we want to enable them to empower many more people. We strongly encourage any organisation that may be eligible for funding to have a look and apply”.
Active Travel Grant Programme
Motability’s new Active Travel Grant Programme will help charities and organisations to improve and expand access to quality and affordable active travel equipment and journeys, to ensure disabled people have the same opportunities to make decisions about how they travel, their impact on the environment and to enjoy the physical and mental health benefits that active travel can provide. Examples of areas where we are focussing our grant making include but are not limited to:
- Providing funding to ensure the voices and needs of disabled people inform and influence design requirements, and crucially, that they are shared with industry and Government to raise awareness.
- Providing funding for charitable programmes that introduce disabled people to different active travel products and services.
- Supporting existing programmes that have a clear focus on increasing travel confidence and safety for disabled people, to enable them to confidently use active travel products and services.
- Providing funding to schemes, programmes and initiatives that are already successful in supporting Active Travel and provide best practice solutions but need further support to remain operational or increase the service they provide, to help more disabled people.
- Providing funding to programmes, charities or organisations to help fund more high quality and affordable active travel equipment for disabled people.
Charities and organisations can apply for grants from £100,000 to £4 million at any point over the next three years.
This programme launches on 8 June 2022. For more information on how charities and organisations can apply for funding please visit our website.
Motability defines active travel as all modes of travel that allow people to get around under their own steam – whether by walking, cycling, push scooters, or use of wheelchairs and other mobility aids. Active travel includes travel for commuting or leisure but does not include competitive and social sport.
Research Grant Programme
This new grant programme will help charities and organisations to develop, expand and improve transport related research for disabled people, and produce data and findings that can be freely accessed by everyone with an interest in making transport more inclusive. Only by working with disabled people to increase understanding of the transport challenges and barriers they face, can the barriers be removed. Examples of areas where we are focussing our grant making include but are not limited to:
- Grant funding for research into barriers and challenges faced by disabled people when accessing or using transport.
- Grant funding for transport related research that identifies good practice and evaluates solutions.
- Grant funding to conduct research to inform and improve new or existing transport related programmes and product design.
Charities and organisations can apply for grants from £50,000 to £1 million at any point over the next three years.
This programme launches on 8 June 2022. For more information on how charities and organisations can apply for funding please visit our website.