Your chance to give up to £16,000 to Sussex charities

Our parent company’s charitable arm, the Gannett Foundation, is providing the money to support charities across the country and we are delighted to have a £16,000 share to give away in our area.

We asked you to decide where this money should be spent.

You nominated in your thousands and our editorial team has chosen a shortlist of ten charities from these nominations which will share the £16,000.

In Sussex, three charities made the final shortlist - East Sussex WRAS, Albion In The Community and Team Domenica.

East Sussex WRAS

Volunteers from East Sussex WRAS provide a front-line rescue service for wildlife casualities

Founded in 1996, East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS) was set up to provide a front-line rescue service for wildlife casualties who, unlike their domesticated cousins, do not have owners to help look after them.

The charity, which is in Whitesmith near Lewes and provides free support with a team of volunteers, receives as many as 4,000 calls every year.

Albion In The Community

Albion in the Community uses educational programmes to help young people get active and learn new skills (Image: Newsquest)

Albion In The Community is the official charity of Brighton and Hove Albion, using the power of the beautiful game to engage and inspire people to change their lives and help them get active, learn new skills and improve their wellbeing.

For more than 30 years, the charity has delivered award-winning educational and outreach programmes that boost wellbeing, support learning and offer inclusive opportunities for everyone to get active and play football.

Team Domenica

Team Domenica supports young people with learning disabilities to enter the world of work

Team Domenica helps young people with learning disabilities find and retain meaningful employment.

The charity was founded in 2016 by Rosa Monckton, whose younger daughter Domenica has Down’s Syndrome.

Through a training centre, training cafe and employment centre, Team Domenica provides employment programmes to young people with a wide range of abilities to help those with learning disabilities lead fulfilling and purposeful lives and feel included as valued members of society.

In the South East region, ten charities were successful finalists, including Watford and District Mencap Society, the St Vincent de Paul Society from Southend and The Witham Hub.

With the shortlist finalised, we are now putting the power to allocate the cash back into the hands of our readers.

You are invited to collect tokens from our newspaper which can then be taken to collection points across our region or posted.

Each token collected will then be used to allocate cash to the nominated charity - so if your favourite charity collects 50 per cent of all the tokens collected, it will receive 50 per cent of the £16,000.

Tokens should be sent to Reader Choice, Echo House, Howard Chase, Basildon, SS14 3BE, or can also be dropped off at collection points located at the charities.

Terms and conditions

Newsquest terms and conditions will apply where relevant to the grants process please visit https://www.newsquest.co.uk/prize-competition-rules.

Personal data will be used by Newsquest and its agents solely for the administration of the grants process and will not be shared with any third party; our general policy notice is at https://www.newsquest.co.uk/privacy-policy.

This campaign will be published in multiple Newsquest publications across this Newsquest region.

The ten charities chosen by the local editorial panel will be voted for by our readers.

The value of the grant awarded to each of the ten charities will be calculated pro rata according to their share of the vote.

Only original voting coupons will be accepted, no photocopies.

The cash grants will be sent by BACS transfer.

Grants are conditional on completion of the relevant project and a successful nominee charity may be required to evidence its use of the grant.

The top ten charities selected for the vote will be contacted to provide additional information for entre into the readers’ vote; should this information not be provided within the timescale provided then the editorial panel will select an alternative charity.

The charity must be registered with the Charities Commission and have not received a grant from the Gannett Foundation in the last two years.