Our Endowment Fund in collaboration with Hertfordshire Community Foundation helps support children, health and local community projects primarily within the geographic area of Hertfordshire but also Bedfordshire. One of our recent grants is helping to support local charity Harpenden Connect.
Harpenden Connect provides, operates and maintains transport facilities for the people in the AL5 area (Harpenden, Hertfordshire), including those who have the special need of such facilities because they are elderly, on low income, disabled, parents or guardians of young children or those living where there are inadequate public transport facilities.
Harpenden Connect runs 5 days per week, Monday through to Friday. The service is continuing from its foundation in 2017 and is a fully functional and extremely reliable offering to the people of Harpenden. Harpenden Town Council supports the service with a leasing agreement for two modern minibuses with Harpenden Connect Limited.
The service, known as the Harpenden Hopper, covers the length and breadth of the town, encompassing the main outlying residential areas as well as an inner town loop. The route has been designed to bring passengers into the town centre as rapidly as possible, and allows ample time for shopping, or visits to the library or doctors, and then to return home efficiently, too. Harpenden Connect (Harpenden Hopper) also works with Harpenden Town Council and other local charities, for example, the Harpenden Trust and YWAM and other community groups. They provide local transport services to these organisations for ad-hoc social and cultural events.
Some of the positive changes this project makes include:
- Continuing to provide support to vulnerable communities leading towards greater equality within the District
- Enable local people to become involved in community life
- Encourage people from different groups to get on well together
- Reduces the volume of cars within the town, having a positive environmental impact
Our grant of £4,000 will help allow the charity to maintain its reserves. They face rising insurance and maintenance costs, and minibus leasing costs may rise due to future aspirations for replacing one of the minibuses with an electric vehicle. Funds would also then be required to install the necessary charging equipment. We are thrilled to be supporting a charity on our doorstep and look forward to continuing to see the Hopper bus going round town.
You can view all our recent grants to local charities on our Endowment Fund Page