CHARITY PARTNERS

Taking a learning approach to our philantrophy, the Foundation seeks to understand where we can make a meaningful difference and continues to build on partnerships that are integral to the three main funding pillars: mental health and wellbeing, the welfare of animals, and engaging and supporting new generations in the arts and creative industries. Scroll to read more about each partnership.

Manolo Blahnik Foundation is honoured to support King’s College London with a grant to support qualitative research into moral injuries associated with working in highly challenging conditions for healthcare workers, including the COVID-19 pandemic and to pilot a moral injury intervention within NHS Foundation Trusts.

The funded qualitative study published in October 2022 reported nearly half of intensive care unit and anaesthetic staff surveyed reported symptoms consistent with a probable diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression, anxiety, or problem drinking. Moral injury refers to the intense psychological distress experienced following an event which violates one’s moral beliefs or expectations. The report details that healthcare staff experience a range of potentially morally injurious events, including mistreatment of others, witnessing unethical behaviour of others and/or failing to intervene, and feeling betrayed by trusted others such as not being provided with adequate support by managers.

The pilot is currently in progress and findings will be used to provide recommendations for NHS Foundation Trusts to mitigate the impact of potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs).

Our grant is funding ongoing research, analysis, and a dissemination plan to facilitate wide-scale implementation of an intervention to reduce moral injury and thus directly improve the lives of healthcare staff.

Refuge4Pets is a pioneering young charity that enables freedom from domestic abuse for victim-survivors across Devon and Cornwall by providing a specialist fostering service for their animals. Often individuals and families escaping domestic abuse are unable to take their animals with them, as most temporary accommodation does not allow pets. In many cases, this will stop people from leaving. The charity empower victims-survivors to access the vital safety and support they need before being reunited with their much-loved animals. The charity’s services are in high demand, each year Refuge4Pets will support around 100 families and 150 animals escaping domestic abuse.

Dr Mary Wakeham founded Refuge4Pets in 2017 after her own experience of domestic abuse and role as an independent domestic violence in Cornwall. She has conducted academic research on gender-based violence establishing how animals are used as tools of coercive control and the importance of animals for victim-survivors during abuse and in their recovery from trauma. Refuge4Pets is now a national voice on this issue providing training nationally and contributing to further research and policy development.

The MBF grant is supporting Refuge4Pets core costs, including contributing to the salaries of key frontline staff who work directly with victim-survivors, both people and animals. In addition, some of the funding will support a feasibility study to explore plans to open their own animal sanctuary.

Since 1949, the Mental Health Foundation has been leading the UK in building good mental health. We know poor mental health is not inevitable and we believe that everyone deserves good mental health. We want to build a society where everybody can thrive. We challenge the way things are done so that no-one living in the UK is deprived of the opportunity for good mental health because of who they are, the community they come from or where they live.

The grant from MBF will enable the Mental Health Foundation to develop a Parents Lived Experience Champion Network (PLECN). The network is a safe space for parents to connect with others in similar situations and share experiences around mental health challenges through healthy discussion, creative activity and physical activity.

The British Red Cross is here to support people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. From storms in the UK to conflict in Ukraine and extreme hunger across sub-Saharan Africa, we are getting life-changing help to those who need it most right now.

We are part of the world’s largest humanitarian network, with 16 million local volunteers across 191 countries and the Red Cross emblem is an internationally recognised symbol of protection. It signifies neutrality and impartiality, and with volunteers being from the communities they serve, people know they can trust us. We support people based on their need, and nothing else.

Together with the Manolo Blahnik Foundation, we are helping people recover from and build resilience to extreme weather events. We are caring for people experiencing a personal health crisis and providing practical and emotional support to people who have been forced to leave their homes by conflict or climate change. The British Red Cross is incredibly grateful to the Manolo Blahnik Foundation for their generosity and flexible support, which is helping make all this vital work possible.

If recent years have taught us anything, it’s that an emergency can happen to anyone, anywhere. With ever more frequent, severe and complex crises, the work of the British Red Cross has never been more important. The Manolo Blahnik Foundation is helping us build a movement of kindness to give hope and help to people whose lives have been turned upside down. Together, we are the world’s emergency responders.