Supporting ‘vital and truly remarkable’ organizations in the Sussex region

One million people, 160 community projects benefit from Rampion Community Benefit Fund

Creative Heart. Open arms.

Based in Littlehampton, England, Creative Heart is a non-profit community hub and arts café. A safe and genuinely inclusive space, Creative Heart tackles social isolation and loneliness, inspires creativity, and improves emotional, physical and mental well-being.

“It’s wonderful to be able to provide a safe, warm and inviting space for some very lonely and vulnerable people in our community,” says Claire Jones, Creative Heart’s director.

Creative Heart is one of about 160 charities, community groups and non-profits in the Sussex region supported by the Rampion Community Benefit Fund. Those organizations serve nearly a million residents living near the Rampion Offshore Wind Project.

The Fund, established to coincide with the opening of the offshore wind project in November 2018, supports organizations that help disadvantaged people and communities, as well as community groups and charities that focus on the environment, energy efficiency, biodiversity and sustainability,

The Sussex Community Foundation will manage the fund of £3.1 million for 10 years, offering grants of up to £10,000 for community project and £20,000 for capital projects. There is an endowment fund that will continue to support the Fund’s mandate after the initial 10 years.

At Creative Heart, the fund has helped install an array of solar panels, battery and three-phase battery inverter for the café, all of which have helped subsidize its ongoing energy costs.

Other charitable organizations benefiting from the fund include:

• Quiet Down There, in Brighton, an open market offering free energy-efficient laundry facilities, which received a new washer and heat-pump tumble dryer.
• Henfield Hall, in Horsham District, the first public use building in Henfield retrofitted with rooftop solar panels.
• Memorial Hall, in Patcham, East Sussex, which was gifted a new air source heat pump system to replace three aging gas heaters.

The Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, Enbridge’s first offshore wind project, is owned by Enbridge, RWE Renewables UK and Equitix, and produces about 1,400 Gigawatt hours of power every year, which is enough to power almost 350,000 homes—around half the homes in Sussex—with clean, green energy. Enbridge has a 24.9% ownership interest in the Rampion Offshore Wind Project.

Enbridge and its partners, RWE and a Macquarie-led consortium, are currently developing the Rampion Extension Offshore Project, which is adjacent to the existing Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, about 13 kilometres off the Sussex coast.

“For us, it’s more than the energy we deliver—it’s also how we use our personal energy to help those around us,” said Matthew Akman, Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and President of Power at Enbridge. “The Rampion project team is committed to being a good neighbour by supporting important community organizations near the wind farm. I’m proud that the Fund has supported so many of those living in the region.”

In addition to the Rampion Community Benefit Fund, Rampion Offshore Wind Farm created the Rampion Visitor Centre for the Sussex community on Brighton Seafront.

Entry is free, and visitors can enjoy dozens of displays and interactive exhibits that bring to life the story of human settlement, technological advancement and population growth, alongside climate change, renewable energy and the construction of Rampion.

(TOP PHOTO: Creative Heart, a non-profit community hub and arts café in Littlehampton, is one of 160 community organizations that have benefited from the Rampion Community Benefit Fund.)