London Community Response Fund: Wave 2 Has Opened

Wave 1 of funding from the London Community Response Fund has now closed to applicants and Wave 2 has opened. As of April 9th, two funding programmes are available with wave 2; the crisis response programme and the delivering differently programme.

The Crisis Response programme is for grants of up to £10,000 to enable organisations to meet the immediate needs of their communities, such as food and essentials and short-term staffing costs.

The Delivering Differently programme is for grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 to enable organisations to change the way in which they work to meet the needs of their communities under the lockdown conditions. This can be from switching to digital modes of communication, to redeploying staff to allow organisations to meet increased demand.

The Fund may consider grants above £50,000 but there will need to be a strong rationale in applications for this.

Guidance for how to apply for these grants can be found here, and the application page can be found here.

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Department for Health & Social Care Calls for Evidence Relating to Volunteering – Deadline Today!

The DHSC has issued a call for evidence relating to volunteering. Any insight you can offer from the frontline would be really helpful in informing their policy decisions. They’ve asked for any data/evidence to be submitted to Matthew.Siddons@dhsc.gov.uk, ideally by the end of the day on Wednesday 15 April. Click here.

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Hire Exceptional Autistic Freelancers!

Spectroomz is a platform for you to benefit from the employment of exceptional, highly motivated, autistic freelancers. It also enables autistic people to work from home and avoid the stress associated with the traditional workplace, with COVID-19 a further reason to promote remote employment.

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BAME Covid-19 Emergency Planning Group

The Ubele Initiative highlights to government urgent concern that BAME communities who are both on the frontline dealing with outbreak and are set to face disproportionate impacts, are not being adequately included and considered in decisions being made by government and civil society leadership. Find out more.

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Campaign to Support Seniors Who are Socially Isolated Throughout Covid-19

The Bring Joy Foundation has launched a campaign to support seniors who are socially isolated throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Donations can be made via justgiving.com/campaign/HomeIsolation. Funds will be distributed to local community groups and Home Instead Senior Care offices to supply craft materials, activities, communication tools and assistive technology to seniors to support them in their isolation. Grants are also available for seniors facing extra challenges during this time due to illness or disability. Local community groups, either registered or unregistered, that have had to suspend meetings can apply for this funding by clicking on the ‘Apply’ button on the homepage of the charity’s website.

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DSC Relaunch #EverybodyBenefits Campaign

DSC say they are dissapointed with the government’s support package for charities, but still pushing desperately for the help we all need. They’re wrestling with the implications of what’s been announced and looking at the gaps that leaves, and will be back arguing the case for more help after the Easter weekend.

In the meantime, they’re relaunching our #EverybodyBenefits campaign. There’s no better time to show government, journalists, and everybody else that the work charities do is critical to society. It’s not an add-on or something we can do without, everything we do is connected to making the world a better place – and #EverybodyBenefits from that!

Read more and get involved here.

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Covid-19 Legal Advice & Insights from Russell-Cooke Solicitors

Check out the links below:

Coronavirus: tax and payment reliefs and deferrals

How will coronavirus affect commercial leases

Support for charities in the current crisis

Coronavirus: a guide for developers and land owners on planning issues

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Funding for Schools Incurring Additional Costs Due to the Coronavirus (England)

The Government has announced extra funding and support to cover the exceptional costs associated with coronavirus (COVID-19) for the period March to July 2020. Funding will be available for all state-funded mainstream and special schools, and alternative provision. This can relate to additional costs associated with keeping schools open during the Easter and/or summer half term holidays, for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers; support; the provision of free school meals (FSM) for eligible children who are not attending school; and additional cleaning – required due to confirmed or suspected coronavirus (COVID-19) cases; etc. Funding will be available to schools that are unable to meet such additional costs from their existing resources, or which they could only meet by drawing down on reserves and undermining their long-term financial sustainability. Click here

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COVID-19 Emergency Surplus Food Grant (England)

The UK Government in collaboration with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) have launched a £3.25 million fund to support the operations of not-for-profit food redistributors to ensure that any surplus food can reach people in need or those considered most vulnerable. The COVID-19 Emergency Surplus Food Grant will be delivered in three phases. During phase 1 WRAP will be approaching a target list of small redistribution organisations who have applied previously to the fund to ascertain their immediate need for potential funding support. Phase 2 (which will be launched on the 9th April) will provide funding opportunities for small surplus food redistributors, and Wrap are also launching funding support aimed at medium to larger operators (phase 3). The grants can be used to fund both capital and revenue costs associated with redistribution activities such as access to surplus food through logistical collections; sorting, storing, freezing, labelling / repackaging food, and; onward distribution of food to charities or end beneficiaries. Click here

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