A charity has been given more than £5,000 in funding by the Government to support its work, but the Quartet Community Foundation (QCF) says is it not enough to bridge the gap to prevent period poverty.

Home-Start North Somerset has been awarded £5,266 from the Government’s Tampon Tax Community Fund grant and the QCF, which helped to distribute the money, says more groups in the area need funding to help combat the issue.

The money was raised through the Government’s tax on sanitary products from the past two years and winning groups from the area received a boost of between £5,000-£10,000.

The grant has been set up to help women involved in, or at risk of, street sex work, to address period poverty and to help the wellbeing of new mothers.

Chief executive of the QCF, Sue Turner, said: “We work with grassroots groups in North Somerset, Bristol and North East Somerset who are running vital services on a shoestring budget and support some of the most marginalised people in the West of England.

“We’re really happy to be able to offer £52,000 to some great groups which will make a difference to women and girls who need it most, but we received applications for 40 projects and only had funding for seven.

“It is very disappointing not to be able to fund more of these projects as the applications highlighted a growing mental health crisis for girls and women who need specialist funding – and this remains an unmet need.”

Senior organiser at Home-Start North Somerset, Julie Parsons, said: “Receiving this grant means a lot and it’s really important to be able to invest the money back into the community.”

The charity is based in Weston and supports mothers with children under five in the town including in Clevedon and Yatton.

Julie added: “It will go towards continuing to run our group for mothers with children under one, Mums in Mind, which helps those who are suffering with postnatal depression, anxiety, a low mood and those who are feeling isolated.”

“The money given to us will fund a further two courses, which run four times a year for eight weeks at a time, and we can continue to hire rooms around the area to host our classes in.

“We can afford extra training for our volunteers.”