Gloucestershire Community Resilience Fund – Covid-19 Response March 2020

Gloucestershire VCS Alliance has issued the following bulletin:

Gloucestershire Community Resilience Fund – Covid-19 Response March 2020

Purpose
The purpose of the fund to is to support local voluntary sector agencies and community groups who are supporting vulnerable people during the Covid-19 crisis to cover additional costs they may incur due to increased activity or functions that they have insufficient resources to meet.

Funding Criteria
The funding can only be used for expenditure in relation to the Covid-19 Crisis including but not exclusively:

• Setting up of Community Floats to purchase food and essential supplies for vulnerable people and families
• Development of digital/virtual support – equipment such as mobile phones or tablets
• Expenses incurred by volunteers such as petrol
• Developing infrastructure to support vulnerable people

Who can apply?

• Community or voluntary groups
• Registered Charities
• Community Interest Companies
• Town and Parish Councils

The fund cannot be used to:

• Support the mainstream activities of an organisation e.g. ongoing yearly spending commitments including salaries and administration costs.
• To create an ongoing funding commitment from the county council.

Contact Details:
Cheltenham District Council Richard Gibson, Richard.Gibson@cheltenham.gov.uk
Cotswold District Council Jacqueline Wright, Jacqueline.Wright@publicagroup.uk
Forest of Dean District Council Andy Barge, Andy.Barge@publicagroup.uk
Gloucester City Council Ruth Saunders, Ruth.Saunders@gloucester.gov.uk
Tewkesbury Borough Council Andy Sanders, andy.sanders@tewkesbury.gov.uk
Stroud District Council Emma Keating- Clark, emma.keatingclark@stroud.gov.uk

Grants of up to £1,000 available from the Langtree Trust

Grants from £50 up to a maximum of £1,000 are available to support local voluntary sector agencies and community groups who are supporting vulnerable people during the Covid-19 crisis.

The Trust was established in 1963 and welcomes applications from charities whose work directly benefits anyone within Gloucestershire with priority given to church projects, youth groups, disabled and disadvantaged people. Projects and equipment are preferred. ‘Running costs’, especially wages, are not favoured.

Applications are usually considered at quarterly meetings of the trustees on receipt of a written application. However, due to the current crisis the Trust would welcome applications by e-mail to langtreetrust@gmail.com from those groups who are supporting vulnerable people during the crisis and would benefit from more funding to support their work. A simple, clear statement of the need with the costs of the project, what funding has so far been achieved and/or a recent copy of the annual accounts are all that is required. Expensive, extensive, glossy brochures are certainly not needed.

Applications are welcomed from Community or voluntary groups, Registered Charities, Community Interest Companies and Town and Parish Councils.

In anticipation of an application being successful, the name of the account payable for a cheque should be shown.

You can find details of other emergency funds further down in this bulletin.

NCVO needs your help to give Government the full picture of impact on charities

The National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) wants to hear from you if your charity is facing financial difficulties because of the coronavirus crisis. They are asking you to email them at tell@ncvo.org.uk so they can give the full picture to government of the problems charities are facing.

Guidance for NHS Volunteer Responders

The NHS has produced NHS Volunteer Responders information for health professionals.

NHS Volunteer Responders have been mobilised to help support vulnerable individuals who are self-isolating. Priority will be given to those identified as most at risk from COVID-19 and asked to self-isolate at home for an extended period and to those who health practitioners and local authorities consider to be vulnerable.

The guidance includes referral information and frequently asked questions. You can find it here.

Coronavirus information in community languages and accessible formats 

Doctors of the World in partnership with the Red Cross, and Migrant Help have produced Coronavirus (COVID-19) written advice for patients in over 30 languages. The complete list: English, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Czech, Dari, Farsi, French, Gujarati, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Hungarian, Kurdish Sorani, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Romanian, Sindhi, Slovak, Spanish, Somali, Tigrinya, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese. You can access the resources here.

Citizens Advice services in Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Forest of Dean and Cheltenham

Due to the current situation North and West Gloucestershire Citizens Advice is providing all services by telephone and email.  We have had to close all our face to face services across Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Forest of Dean and Cheltenham districts until further notice.

For telephone advice please contact 01452 527202.  For email advice visit www.gloscab.org.uk and complete the email enquiry form.  Our website also provides online advice.

There are currently many people applying for Universal Credit.  If people need help to claim they can contact the Help to Claim service on 0800 1448 444.

We are receiving over three times as many calls as we usually do and people may have to be called back.  Where that is necessary we are calling people back within one working day.  Where a person is calling about a food voucher, we will respond on the same day.

Like many services, our staff and volunteers are adapting the way we operate to meet the demand we are seeing and the restrictions we face.  You can see updates on Twitter @gloscab.

Gloucestershire Carers Hub

Gloucestershire Carers Hub is offering virtual coffee mornings and training opportunities using Zoom. For details click here.

Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence

Domestic abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and financial. If you’re experiencing domestic abuse or you think someone else is, please tell someone.

For advice and support see: http://www.gdass.org.uk/what-is-domestic-abuse/ or visit www.gloucestershire.police.uk, call 101, or in an emergency always call 999.

The government has issued some national guidance on information and key messages for domestic abuse, find it here.

Message from Gloucestershire Constabulary

Staying at home can be stressful. If you’re concerned that a neighbour, friend or family member could be experiencing domestic abuse, please do something. Give them a call or a text and set up a code word if they’re in need of urgent help. Please remember never to confront a perpetrator or talk to a victim in front of them.

If you’re concerned about someone or need help tell us at www.gloucestershire.police.uk, by calling 101, or in an emergency by calling 999.

Helpful links:
http://www.gdass.org.uk/what-is-domestic-abuse/
https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/children-young-people-and-families/report-a-child-at-risk/
https://www.hopehousesarc.nhs.uk/
http://www.glosrasac.org/

Message from GDASS on Covid-19 and Domestic Abuse

Self-isolation and Social Distancing mean more people are staying at home. It’s a stressful time, people are working from home and children are off school.

This is an extremely risky time for victims of abuse.

As well as supporting people with their health and social issues at this incredibly difficult time, you as professionals are likely to be supporting service users who are experiencing higher levels of domestic abuse. Isolating/distancing guidelines mean this could be even more difficult than usual. It is likely that more perpetrators are going to be in the home when we try and contact the victim, or the victim calls in for support. There are things we/you can do to try and minimise the risk to the victim:

• NEVER leave a voice message if you believe the victim and perpetrator share a home.
• If you think the perpetrator has answered the phone, ask for somebody else – a made up name – and pretend you have dialled the wrong number.
• Call from a withheld number so the perpetrator cannot trace it/call you back
• If you do manage to speak to the victim, ask them yes/no questions
• Help the victim to think of a false reason for the call in case the perpetrator asks – for example, ‘it was the bank’ or ‘it was Nurse calling about xyz’.
• Agree on a code word for the victim to use if they need your help but can’t say explicitly.
• If the victim uses the code word, or you feel they are in need of assistance/are in danger, call 999.
• Victims can self refer through our website:
• If the victim wants to refer, but can’t access the internet safely, offer to make the referral for them.

GDASS is continuing to offer telephone support. We have had to temporarily stop all face to face contact with clients, however we are taking referrals via our website and will call existing clients and new referrals via telephone.

We also continue to support you as professionals with any domestic abuse related queries, please get in touch via the website. http://www.gdass.org.uk/what-is-domestic-abuse/.

Is your bank behaving responsibly right now?

If your bank is being unreasonable to your charity at present, Barnwood Trust and the Alliance have had an offer from Crowe, accountants in Cheltenham. Crowe has contacts in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy who can flag any issues up to government. If this is impacting you please contact Matt Lennard in the first instance, matt.lennard@glosvcsalliance.org.uk. All communication will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Health Management and Policy Alert from the King’s Fund

The King’s Fund Library has issued a Health Management and Policy Alert newsletter containing a number of briefings. You can find the newsletter here https://kingsfundmail.org.uk/21A8-6T15Z-9BW7SJS8AC/cr.aspx.

Contents include:
Centre for Social Justice – Coronavirus and voluntary sector resilience
This briefing looks at the potential impact of coronavirus on the income of the voluntary sector and makes some recommendations to government. Read the briefing here.

Housing Learning and Improvement Network (Housing LIN)
This briefing set out a number of tips for the housing sector on end-of-life care and signposts to some useful links and practical advice. Read the briefing here.

Public Health England

• Guidance for the public on the mental health and wellbeing aspects of coronavirus.

• Guidance for parents and carers on supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing during the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. This advice is to help adults with caring responsibilities look after the mental health and wellbeing of children or young people, including those with additional needs and disabilities.
• Guidance on social distancing for everyone in the UK. This guidance is for everyone, including children. It advises on social distancing measures we should all be taking to reduce social interaction between people to reduce the transmission of Covid-19. It is intended for use in situations where people are living in their own homes, with or without additional support from friends, family and carers.

NHS – Mental wellbeing while staying at home. Tips and advice to help keep on top of your mental wellbeing and cope with how you may feel while staying at home.

World Health Organization – Mental health and psychosocial considerations during Covid-19 outbreak. These guidelines include a series of messages targeting different groups to support mental and psychosocial wellbeing.

FUNDING

Sport England Community Emergency Fund

The Community Emergency Fund aims to deliver immediate funding to those most in need. It’s specifically targeted at organisations, including those not currently supported by Sport England, that have a role in supporting the nation to be active but are experiencing short term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the ongoing crisis.

Eligible organisations include local sports clubs forced to close at short notice but face ongoing costs around maintenance and utility bills, and voluntary and community sector organisations who deliver or enable sport and physical activity.

Grants between £00 and £10,000 are available.
https://www.sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/our-funds/community-emergency-fund

In addition Sport England has announced:

• £5m fund for existing Sport England partners experiencing immediate hardship
• £55 million put aside to support the sector during COVID restrictions – to fund innovative ways to keep people active – and to support the sector during recovery
• £115 million rollover of current funding into 2021/22 to give certainty to established partners whose current funding arrangements run out in March 2021.

Find out more at https://www.sportengland.org/news/195-million-package-help-sport-and-physical-activity-through-coronavirus.

Rural Response Emergency Grants Programme

The Prince’s Countryside Fund has grants to sustain rural communities, improve the prospects of viability for farm and rural businesses, and support aid delivery in an emergency and build resilience. Funding is available to organisations if they are:

• providing emergency relief to vulnerable or isolated individuals
• providing support to farmers and farm businesses affected by the Coronavirus pandemic
• assisting rural or farming communities to cope with the Coronavirus pandemic

The fund is open to Registered Charities (including Charitable Incorporated Organisations), Community Benefit Societies, Community Interest Companies, Companies limited by guarantee and Social enterprises. They have specifically mentioned rural foodbanks, rural community shops and hubs.

Grants will be up to £2,500. Applications close at 12pm on 15 April
https://www.princescountrysidefund.org.uk/grant-giving-programme/grant-programme

The funds listed below are repeated from our newsletter earlier in the week.

Gloucestershire Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund – now open for applications

This grant programme aims to support local activities that are helping communities affected by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. It will offer local charitable and community organisations emergency funding to support emerging challenges faced within local communities as a result of the continuing threat of Coronavirus.

The initial focus is on providing emergency grants to coordinated volunteer programmes, and those picking up extra demand such as foodbanks, counselling services, advice organisations and befriending services, who will play a key role in helping the most vulnerable people in our communities who have been impacted as a result of the virus.

Open to charitable organisations and voluntary and community groups with charitable aims. Applicants must be based and working in Gloucestershire.

To be eligible your work in response to Coronavirus must support one or more of the following groups:

• Elderly (aged 65 and over)
• Vulnerable or disadvantaged people
• People with disabilities and/or underlying health difficulties
• Homeless people
• Low income families
• Refugees and asylum seekers
• People experiencing food poverty

Funding: grants will mostly be around £1,000. Maximum £5,000

There is no closing date for applications at the current time.

Further information: https://www.gloucestershirecf.org.uk/gloucestershire-coronavirus-emergency-response-fund.

National Lottery Community Fund

The National Lottery has announced that all National Lottery Community Fund funding decisions in the next six months will be devoted to responding to the Covid-19 crisis.  They will prioritise faster payments for existing grant holders and applicants using the following criteria:

• Activities specifically geared to supporting communities through this crisis
• Helping organisations overcome any liquidity issues caused by COVID-19.

https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/about/coronavirus-updates.

CAF Coronavirus Emergency Fund

This Fund is to help smaller charitable organisations affected by the impact of Covid-19. Grants of up to £10,000 are available. This is intended as a rapid response fund to enable charitable activities to continue in whatever way is needed. Due to the expected high numbers of applicants it is likely that not every eligible applicant will be successful.

The fund is open to charitable organisations with an income of £1million or less in their last financial year.

https://www.cafonline.org/charities/grantmaking/caf-coronavirus-emergency-fund.