Isle of Wight charities, sports groups and arts organisations who regularly need to visit the mainland are being invited to apply for travel support.
Funding is available over the next year through the 2023 Wightlink in the Community Sponsorship programme.
Applications can be made throughout October, with successful groups receiving 12 months support from January 1 next year. Details of how to apply can be found online.
Wightlink in the Community currently supports around 40 Island groups with regular travel, helping Islanders to attend mainland training, events or matches and/or bring people or equipment to the Isle of Wight.
The ferry company is particularly looking to support applications with a focus on young people as well as environmental initiatives — complementing Wightlink’s Green Fund for Schools.
Aspire is one of a number of charities to receive help from Wightlink. Trevor Nicholas from the Ryde-based charity said:
“We often need to travel to the mainland to pick up supplies for our community work and any money we can save, we can put towards helping people in need.
"We’ve developed a good relationship with Wightlink over the years which has gone beyond just sponsorship - the company takes a real interest in our work and helps us where it can.”
Platform One College of Music has been supported by Wightlink for more than two decades.
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David Pontin, Platform One Director, said:
“We’re really grateful for the support we receive from Wightlink, which helps us provide top quality music industry tuition to young people.
"From assisting us to bring music professionals to the Island to providing support for mainland tours, it makes such a big difference to us and our students.”
Wightlink Chief Executive Keith Greenfield added:
“We take great pride in our Wightlink in the Community scheme which helps a variety of good causes. They all play an important role in Island life and many create valuable opportunities for young Islanders.
“We look forward to receiving applications from groups in need of travel support in 2023.”