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Sylva Foundation, a national environmental charity based in Oxfordshire, has been awarded a grant of £240,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to tackle gender inequality in Britain’s heritage woodwork and furniture making sectors.

The charity runs a successful wood school and hosts multiple businesses at its Wood Centre in Long Wittenham, South Oxfordshire. Through its work, including training the next generation of craftspeople and supporting business start-ups, Sylva is increasingly aware of gender inequality in the woodworking sector. This has been reinforced by the charity’s independent research, which showed that among 954 employees represented in a survey, only 20% of the workforce were women, and among those working in manufacturing the percentage dipped as low as 8.5%.

The grant awarded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund builds upon generous matched donations received from other supporters in the woodworking sector including: Conran Foundation, The Mila Charitable Trust, Benchmark Furniture Ltd, and Vastern Timber Ltd.

Welcoming the launch of this new project, Stuart McLeod, Director of England – London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “We're delighted to support this project, which thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, will mean that more people will be able to get involved with, protect, and learn about important heritage skills resulting in a more diverse and better-skilled heritage woodworking sector. Preserving traditional skills for future generations is important, and this project is a fantastic example of achieving those aims.”

Head of Wood School at Sylva Foundation, Joseph Bray, added: “We're incredibly excited to be launching this new project, which has taken a huge amount of work to bring together and been so generously supported by so many individuals, businesses, charities and funding bodies. We want to provide role models so that women and non-binary people can see themselves in the sector, to be inspired by enhanced career opportunities and inclusive workplaces. Ultimately, we hope to inspire more women and non-binary people to consider a career in woodworking and to become successful. We can’t wait to get started and make a difference!”

Sylva Foundation is a national environmental charity working for a society that lives in harmony with nature, focusing on the stewardship of our forests and the utility of home-grown timber. It provides solutions to meet significant environmental challenges by innovating, collaborating, training, and advocating. For further information, see www.sylva.org.uk.