Easy Travel Access Fund

What is the Easy Travel Access Fund?

Launched by Portsmouth City Council, the Easy Travel Access Fund offers grants of up to £5,000 to organisations that work with people who may face barriers to using public transport. The goal is to help more people in Portsmouth access essential services, promote sustainable travel, and make bus travel easier and more affordable for everyone.

The fund can be used for:

• Buying bus tickets for those in need
• Providing travel training to help people navigate the bus system
• Running projects that encourage bus use and make it more accessible

By increasing bus usage, the fund will also help to reduce traffic congestion, help to improve air quality, and support a more sustainable transport network in Portsmouth.

Who can apply?

Applications are welcomed from charities, businesses, schools and community groups who are looking for support for bus ticketing projects and initiatives.

How to apply?

Applications are currently closed, please check back soon for future opportunities.

Other support available

Grants totally £115,700 have been awarded to 31 local organisations to help remove transport barriers and make public travel more accessible for residents across Portsmouth.

Ark Ayrton Supporting children from deprived backgrounds with independent travel training, helping them build confidence in using public transport and navigating the city safely.

Artful Dodgers Providing bus travel support for young people attending creative workshops and activities, ensuring they can access opportunities without financial constraints.

City of Portsmouth College Running an independent travel training program for SEN students, helping them gain the skills to use public transport confidently and independently.

Connors Toy Libraries – Supporting families with young children by providing bus tickets to attend community activities and access early childhood support services.

Enable Ability Offering specialist travel training for disabled individuals, ensuring they can navigate public transport and travel independently.

Enable Ability (Portsmouth Teenage Project) Providing independent travel training for disabled teenagers, helping them gain confidence in commuting and accessing essential services.

Farlington Wraparound Service Supporting vulnerable families with bus travel assistance, ensuring they can attend community programs and essential appointments.

Hampshire Community Rail Partnership – Running bus travel training sessions for children with disabilities, helping them gain confidence in using public transport safely.

Home Start Assisting families and volunteers with bus ticket support, enabling them to attend local services and community activities.

Hudson Blake Ltd (Together We Walk) Offering an E-course on travel training tailored to neurodivergent individuals, helping them navigate public transport more comfortably.

Lithuanian Community Providing accessible travel support for community members, ensuring they can attend cultural and social events across the city.

Minstead Trust Helping people with learning disabilities access employment opportunities by supporting their bus travel needs.

Motiv8 Running travel training programs for young people, supporting them in gaining independence and confidence in public transport use.

Open Sight Hampshire Offering travel support and training for visually impaired individuals, helping them navigate Portsmouth’s bus network safely.

Paulsgrove ARK Providing bus travel support for community workshops, ensuring that local residents can attend sessions that foster social inclusion.

Portsea Carers Service  Supporting carers with travel funding to help them access vital resources and appointments.

Portsmouth Homeless Family Services – Salvation Army – Supporting vulnerable families with bus tickets, ensuring they can access support services and community resources.

Portsmouth Stroke Recovery Service Helping stroke survivors with bus travel rehabilitation, aiding in their recovery and independence.

Red Squirrel OT CIC Offering bus travel support for individuals accessing mental health services, making therapy and counselling more accessible.

SEND Faces Running interactive independent travel training for children with special educational needs, helping them develop lifelong mobility skills.

Share (Portsmouth) Providing travel support for residents to attend the Repair Café, ensuring more people can take part in sustainable practices.

Solent Mind Supporting mental health service users with bus travel assistance, helping them reach crucial wellbeing services.

Sophie’s Legacy Assisting families caring for children in QA Hospital with bus ticket support, ensuring access to hospital visits without financial strain.

Southern Domestic Abuse Service Supporting women escaping domestic abuse by providing bus tickets to help them reach safe spaces and support services.

Spark Community Space Running bus travel training sessions for socially isolated individuals, helping them reconnect with community activities.

St Swithun’s Catholic Primary Offering bus travel support for refugee children, ensuring they can access educational opportunities.

The Harbour School Promoting bus travel for SEN children, helping them build confidence in using public transport independently.

The Parenting Network Providing bus travel support for vulnerable families, ensuring access to essential community resources.

The YOU Trust Helping patients access non-medical support services by providing bus travel assistance.

UR Bond Offering bus travel support for individuals from underserved backgrounds, ensuring they can access education, employment, and social activities.

Grants were awarded to the following successful bids in 2024:

• Ark Charter Academy Ark Charter Academy are supporting some of their students to attend College during the school week to enrich their educational experience. They will use the funding to provide bus tickets for these students, to help them commute to college and further help them develop their confidence, knowledge and independence to travel around the city.
• Bangladesh Welfare Association The Bangladesh Welfare Association supports social welfare needs and community development for the Bangladeshi community in Portsmouth. They will use the funding to provide bus tickets and support to those in their community who might not have used the bus before to help build their confidence. They will also be organising local community trips for groups to get out and enjoy the city by bus.
• Community Kettle CIC Community Kettle CIC aim to build an inclusive, compassionate, diverse community, where all ages connect to share experiences, ideas and talents. They will use the funding to provide bus tickets to enable their volunteers, partnership groups and service users to travel to and from the hub.
• Cross Cultural Women’s Group The Cross Cultural Women’s Group is a support group for women from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The group will use the funding to provide bus tickets for women across the city to be able to travel to their groups and sessions.
• Follow Your Dreamz Follow Your Dreamz is a performing arts CIC aiming to provide opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to express themselves through performing arts. They will use the funding to provide bus tickets to families across the city to help them in travelling to Follow Your Dreamz sessions and allowing them to attend more regularly.
• Friends Without Borders (Portsmouth) Friends Without Borders will use the funds to purchase bus tickets for service users so that they can travel to services and amenities in Portsmouth by bus that they would not otherwise be able to access, such as the gym, volunteering projects, interviews, or educational courses.
• Home-Start Portsmouth Home-Start Portsmouth will use the funding to provide bus tickets for the families they support, enabling them to travel to and attend community organisations and groups. Tickets may also be provided to Home-Start Portsmouth volunteers, who will use the tickets to visit families or help to take a family around the city.
• Minstead Trust The Minstead Trust enables people with learning disabilities to achieve greater independence and make informed choices for happier and healthier lives. They will use the funding to provide bus tickets allowing either the people they support to travel independently, or in supported travel, and travel training, where they are accompanied by experienced support staff.
• Motiv8 Motiv8 will use the funding to provide bus tickets to the young people they support. This will give them the experience of using public transport and build their confidence in travelling across the city, and also enable young people to attend Motiv8 sessions and groups.
• Open Sight Charity Open Sight were granted funding to run a series of workshops for Portsmouth’s Vision Impaired (VI) Community and their families. These workshops will share information about the city’s bus network, provide guidance about applying for concessionary bus passes, and build confidence in people living with sight loss, encouraging them to go out and use the bus.
• PPC of Harbour Church PPC of Harbour Church will use the funding to provide bus tickets for attendees of their weekly Haven group, which allows women who have experienced or are experiencing exploitation, gender abuse, or women who have had extreme adverse experiences to discover connection with others in a safe, relaxed, private space. The funding will support attendees to travel to sessions on a regular basis.
• Portsmouth & Southsea FC Portsmouth & Southsea Futsal Club will set up a City Travel scheme to provide bus tickets for members of their club and help build their confidence in using public transport to travel for education, recreation and leisure.
• Portsmouth Carers Service Portsmouth Carers Service will use the funding to provide bus tickets for carers, supporting them to be able to travel across the city and access the wider community. The aim is to support carers’ wellbeing and reduce the chance of social isolation.
• Portsmouth City of Sanctuary Portsmouth City of Sanctuary will use the funding to provide bus tickets to those they support so that they are able to access the City of Sanctuary Hub, community spaces, and projects, and can build their confidence in using public transport to travel around the city.  
• Portsmouth Women Alliance Portsmouth Women Alliance will use the funding to provide bus tickets for the women attending their activities, to allow them to travel to their activities and build their confidence in using public transport. They will also organise trips for their community to give them the opportunity to discover new places.
• Seekers Create Seekers Create will use the funding as part of a project and provide bus tickets to children and young people with special educational needs (SEND) and their families, enabling them to participate in creative activities and support sessions which will promote inclusion, mental wellbeing and reduce social isolation.
• Share Portsmouth Share Portsmouth aims to make it easier for people to reduce carbon, waste and raw material use through sharing, repairing and re-use. The project includes Repair Café Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Library of Things. Share Portsmouth will use the funding to provide bus tickets to people who do not currently use public transport, so that they will be able to access the Library of Things and Repair Café by bus and have confidence in using the bus in future.
• Society of St James The Society of St James (SSJ) will use the funding to provide bus tickets for their clients to enable them to attend the SSJ’s group sports activities as well as routine appointments. They will also provide tickets for peer mentor volunteers who will buddy with service users to build their confidence and educate them about bus travel and how to plan journeys.
• URBond Urbond provide young people with a safe and inclusive space to meet with peers, as well as mentorship and career path guidance. They will use the funding to provide bus tickets for the young people they support,  to enable them to get to activities and support services across the city.
• Work Better Innovations Work Better Innovations will use the funding to provide bus tickets for their service users, helping them to access their workshops, training, and professional events, as well as build their confidence in navigating public transport.

Charity Open Sight were granted funding to run a series of workshops for Portsmouth’s Vision Impaired (VI) Community and their families.

These workshops will share information about the city’s bus network, provide guidance about applying for concessionary bus passes, and build confidence in people living with sight loss, encouraging them to go out and use the bus.

“I am thrilled that Open Sight has been awarded funding for this project by Portsmouth City Council. This funding will help us address the travel challenges faced by the vision-impaired community in Portsmouth.

Through our workshops and tailored support, we aim to build confidence, reduce isolation, and empower individuals to navigate the city independently.” – Ian Morris, Head of Services at Open Sight.

Charity Enable Ability were provided with funding to provide independent travel training to young people with disabilities to help them explore their city with confidence.

James Donougher, Project Leader at Enable Ability, added:

“Independent travel training empowers our young people with disabilities to explore their city with confidence. For many of the people who we work with, it’s the first step towards independence, whether this is travelling to and from college or meeting friends, but ultimately, accessing employment opportunities as an adult and living an independent life away from home. The Easy Travel Access Fund allows us to remove barriers, build life skills in a supportive environment, as well as giving the young people we work with the opportunities to thrive beyond the classroom.”

The Bangladesh Welfare Association has also been provided with funding.

The Association will use the award to provide bus tickets and support to those in their community who might not have used the bus before to help build their confidence. They will also be organising local community trips for groups to get out and enjoy the city by bus.

“We are grateful for the award of the Easy Travel Access Fund. This funding will help us support our community in using public transport and bring confidence in public travel services.” – Lakak Muhit, Development Officer at Bangladesh Welfare Association Portsmouth.